OpenSG Simulations Working Group – Modeling & Simulation Survey

Preliminary results after 10 responses – 24 May 2012

1General Information

2How is modeling & simulation (M&S) technology used in the Smart Grid domain

Inwhat areas do you apply Modeling and Simulation:

What top five Smart Grid technologies (e.g. Demand Response, Virtual Power Plants, Electric Vehicles) do you expect to impact system reliability in a positive or negative way?

Technology / Times mentioned
EVs / 4
Virtual Power Plants / 3
Demand Response / 3
Renewables / 2
Storages / 1
Distributed Generation / 1
Fault Location, Isolation and Supply Restoration (FLISR) / 1
Dynamic Tariffs / 1
EV Charging / 1
ARM / 1
EVs (in a positive way) / 1
Dispatcher Training Simulator / 1
Interruptible Loads / 1
Solid State Transformer / 1
Command and Control / 1
Volt/Var Control / 1
Photovoltaics / 1
Metering / 1
Custom Power / 1

What are the obstacles that prevent you from using M&S either completely or up to a certain extent?

Obstacle / Times mentioned
Building models from utility data and modeling proprietary systems/
Complex data imports and maintenance/ Sometimes the models are quite complex, and the effort to create full realistic simulations requires sometimes much effort/ The complexity of my project and variety of parameters / 4
Steep learning curve/ Training staff (Not all engineers have the required skills: technology, mathematics & statistics, presentation of results, selection of right abstraction level, ...) / 3
Ensuring the accuracy of the results/validation / 2
Costly tools / 1
Incapability of positive-sequence simulations to deal with imbalance / 1
Simulation power of the simulation unit (computer). / 1
Sometimes it is difficult to motivate this additional efforts / Some customers demand a demonstration in reality and do not require (and pay) for prior simulation / 1

3Simulation Tools

Tool / Category / Times mentioned
Matlab/Simulink / Matlab or similar / 5
OpenDSS / Power system analysis / 4
EMTP-RV / Modeling framework/
Power system analysis (e.g. PowerFactory) / 2
Self-made / Java / 2
CAPE / Modeling framework / 2
SimPy / Modeling framework / 1
ATP / Power system analysis / 1
EV charging simulator / Mathematicalsolver / 1
Yats / Discrete event discrete time simulator / 1
GAMS / Mathematicalsolver / 1
PyPower / Power system analysis / 1
PSCAD/EMTDC / Modeling framework / 1
Power Factory / Power system analysis / 1
CYMDIST / Power system analysis / 1
DesignBase / Power system analysis / 1
MATHCAD / Mathematical solver / 1
PSCAD / Power system analysis / 1
JADE / Agent-based modelling / 1

Tool categories

Category / Times mentioned
Power system analysis / 10
Matlab or similar / 6
Modeling framework / 5
Mathematical solver / 3
Agent-based modelling / 1
Spreadsheet / 0
Statistical package / 0

Input Formats

Input Type / Plain text / CSV / SQL / Proprietary / CIM
Grid topologies / 5 / 1 / 0 / 6 / 6
Model parameter / 5 / 4 / 0 / 8 / 1
Weather data / 4 / 3 / 1 / 2 / 0
Electrical measurements / 4 / 2 / 1 / 5 / 1
Other measurements / 6 / 2 / 1 / 1 / 0
GIS data / 4 / 0 / 0 / 2 / 2

Used Automation Interfaces

Interface / Times mentioned
None / 18
COM / 3
Unknown / 2
Other / 1
Scripting / 1
Java Script / 1
Java/Matlab Bridge / 1
OPC UA / 0

4Models

5Missing features/functionality

In general, which effects do models that are available not readily account for?Weather simulation

  • Communication delays/blackouts
  • Proprietary vendor (e.g. inverter) control and protection
  • ICT
  • Communication capability of smart grid devices
  • Real electrical parameters
  • DER: Some producer individual properties
  • residential load
  • simulation did not use recorded real loads

Imagine a perfect tool for your needs. What would be its best feature(s)?

  • Scripting and graphical interfaces
  • Ease of use
  • Easy to use for transient AND steady state simulations
  • Benchmarked results
  • Example cases similar to what I need
  • Good output integration with tools like TOP, Matlab
  • CIM and Mulitspeak interfaces
  • COM or other scripting
  • User code modeling (e.g. Modelica or VHDL-AMS)
  • Integration Telecommunication and Power Systems
  • scalability – flexibility
  • Highly scalable: (e.g., not simulating one residential, but 10000)
  • all electricity parameters
  • real power network conditions, e.g. cables, connections, ...
  • Simple graphical modeling (similar simulink)
  • Easy integration of measurement data (Excel, and CSV)
  • Interactive and powerful evaluation of results (e.g., integration of statistical environments such as R)
  • Continuous operation, maybe as a service, such that it could run as a mockup in a testing environment
  • Real features economic and benefit analysis

Are there any particular future modeling and simulation requirements/needs that you have identified for Smart Grid technologies?

Simple, easy-to-integrate tools that already come with profiles of existing residential load, generation loads. (Maybe this might existalready ..?)

6Interoperability

Coupled platforms / Use case / Obstacles / Benefits
SimPy, Matlab, PyPower / Custom models with powerflow analysis / Different configuration files, starting/stopping the processes, testing the integration. / No migration of the models required/no revalidation required
Linux and Windows, also browser and web server / Large expensive packages reside on different platforms
Want client-side access to simulator on a Web server / If the simulators run at different time steps, it's much harder to couple them. Everythingelseistractable. / simple and portable
Excel VBA
Java Script
EMTP-RV / Build a distribution feeder in EMTP-RV in an automated fashion. / Need to account for different input formats (CYME, ACCESS DB, ...) / Large system can be build automatically.
GIS, SCADA, ERP / topology / communication / -