Is Our Simulation Software Ready For a Competitive Power Environment?

Transmission & Distribution World December 2000

By Chuck Newton, Automation Editor

Several industries use simulation software to provide modeling and design capabilities for design engineers. In the power-delivery industry, power systems simulation offerings provide transmission and distribution engineering personnel with the opportunity to simulate and study the behavior of electrical networks under various “what if” scenarios.

A variety of suppliers offer packages. These suppliers include true commercial software suppliers whose expertise lies within the area, manufacturers of power test equipment, consulting firms, research organizations such as EPRI and universities

As you move deeper into this specialized world of simulation software for the power industry, you will find a substantial portion of larger utilities interested in electromagnetic transient (EMT) simulation software. You will also find available devices for simulating the effects of power transients, known as transient waveform real-time output devices. These new offerings will help serve the changing needs of today’s utilities when it comes to modeling and simulating the real world of power transmission and delivery in a rapidly changing environment.

The world market for such software sits at less than $50 million per year, but would run much higher without the prevalent use of “free” ware and shareware. In fact, the cost of usage, while a “soft” cost to the user organization, probably would run in the hundreds of millions of dollars for the time and effort spent by technical staff to operate the software and analyze the output.

In today’s computing environment, most users prefer a desktop personal computer (PC)-based approach to power systems simulation software. These technical users look for a Windows-like touch and feel to such software. Often, the software accompanies control-center-based systems, especially from suppliers of energy management systems (EMS) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems who partner with external sources of the software.

Meanwhile, the ongoing need to conduct power-quality studies, relay protection tests and analyses, distribution studies, reliability analyses, harmonics analyses and alternating current (ac) transmission studies remains strong.

What will deregulation bring to this specialized world of software systems? If you ask providers, they will tell you that power systems simulation software must become more important to this new era. Why? Because network modeling will defend the self-interests of the transmission and distribution entity, if nothing else. This phenomenon will become more evident as increasingly sophisticated energy users monitor and control more and more of their medium- and low-voltage usage patterns.

Intensive energy-using industries are becoming quite adept at understanding power-quality issues, especially those concerning power-factor reliability and its effects on their operations. One way to monitor this reliability is to use power simulation software to help measure and understand the characteristics of the electricity coming into the plant. The software also can help assess distribution patterns within the plant. Such a test, conducted on various production lines and pieces of equipment, including uninterruptible power systems, switchgear and adjustable speed drives used in manufacturing, helps determine whether power-related problems exist and then pinpoints specific power-quality issues.

Paul Wilson is the managing director for the Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada-based Manitoba HVDC Research Centre, one of the leading sources of power systems simulation software. In a recent discussion, Wilson provided the following insights:

“With pressure from deregulation, existing environmental pressure, and emerging technologies in bulk power transmission – particularly voltage-sourced converter systems – utilities will be forced to re-examine their traditional ac transmission technologies.”

Wilson says the problem arises when users call upon the capabilities of older modeling and simulation software to model the newer power technologies coming into use. “The traditional load flow and transient stability simulation programs will be incapable of accurately modeling the performance of these new technologies.”

This problem creates a need within the industry, Wilson says. “The role of advanced simulation software in this arena will cover all business processes, from inception study, design, commissioning and operations.”

I agree with Wilson and other members of the power systems simulation community who believe this software can help bridge the gap between today’s electrical networks and the types of electrical network design, protection and control features that a competitive environment requires.