- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory develops advanced simulation tools and test facilities to help analyze and experiment with the power grid in a "virtual" environment. This includes tools for power flow analysis, state estimation, markets and other applications. - PNNL has various simulation platforms and tools, along with high performance computing capabilities and test facilities like lab homes and a control center, that can be used to test new technologies and analyze the power grid without disrupting real operations. - PNNL is working to develop large, open source test power flow cases and dynamic simulation cases to help benchmark solver tools and analyze the grid at high levels of geographic and time-series detail not previously possible.

1. Power Grid Simulation and Beyond at
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Mallikarjuna R. Vallem
Senior Research Engineer
Advanced Grid Analytics and Renewable Integration
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
902 Battelle Boulevard
P.O. Box 999, MSIN K1-85
Richland, WA 99352 USA
Tel: 509-375-2895
Mallikarjuna.Vallem@pnnl.gov

2. Applications
Evolution of power system tools
2
Manual calculation
Manual simulation
EMS (operation)
PSLF, PSS/E etc. (planning)
OPF
Market Clearing
…
Power flow
Short circuits
System stability ????
<10 buses
Power flow
Short circuit
100 buses 10,000s buses >10,000s buses
Analogue simulation Digital simulation High performance simulation
Hardware in the loop testing
Analog computer Digital computer HPC, Real-time simulators

3. 3
Chemical
Experiment
Circuit
Experiment
Automotive
Experiment
Power Grid
Experiment?
There is no “real” experiment
on the power grid.
“Virtual” power systems can
aid real-time experiments.
Need for real-time power
system testbeds.
Need for “virtual” power systems and
simulation capabilities
3

4. Overview of power system operation
Power Grid
Generators
Transmission/
Distribution
Markets
End users
Ref: http://brandng.com/
C
o
m
m
s
SCADA
master
Database
curation
Historian
Applications
• Power flow
• State estimation
• Bad Data
Detection
• Automatic
Generation
Control
• Optimal
Powerflow
• Markets
• Unit commitment
• Dispatch
Energy management system
Visual
Analytics
Operator control/
Decision support
4

5. ‘Virtual’ power grid for advanced simulation
and analysis
Applications
• Power flow
• State estimation
• Bad Data
Detection
• Automatic
Generation
Control
• Optimal
Powerflow
• Markets
• Unit commitment
• Dispatch
SCADA/
EMS
Database
curation
Historian
Operator control/
Decision support
Visual
Analytics
Virtual Power Grid
Generators
Transmission/
Distribution
Markets
End users
Hardware
devices
Hardware
devices
Hardware
devices
Comms
Comms
C
o
m
m
s
C
o
m
m
s
5

6. • Distribution simulator, repository of controllers,
networks, devices and end use models
• Co-simulation framework to run synchronize and
share data between many simulators
• Network emulator for power grid applications
• Flexible control platform for power grid devices
• HPC solver for advanced power system applications
• Data management and advanced visualization tools
Bridging the gaps: PNNL developed tools for grid
analytics
6
GridLAB-DTM
PowerNET
VOLTTRONTM
FNCS
Advanced
visual analytics
GridPACKTM
PNNL developed tools and platforms

7. Scope of PNNL developed tools power
system simulation
SCADA
Database
curation
Historian
Applications
Power flow
State estimation
Cyber
security/BDD
AGC
OPF
Markets
Unit
commitment
Dispatch
.
.
.
Operator control/
Decision support
Visual
Analytics
Virtual Power Grid
Generators
Transmission
/Distribution
Markets
End users
Hardware
devices
Hardware
devices
Hardware
devices
Comms
Comms
C
o
m
m
s
C
o
m
m
s
GridPACKTM
GridLAB-DTM
PowerNET
GridPACKTM,
GridLAB-DTM
M-DART
Advanced
visual
analytics
FNCS
VOLTTRONTM
V
O
L
T
T
R
O
N
T
M
V
O
L
T
T
R
O
N
T
M
PNNL tools footprint
7

8. State of the art PNNL test facilities
8
Electricity Infrastructure Operations
Center (EIOC)
Fully capable control center
Brings together industry-leading
software, real time data and
advanced computation capabilities
Safe test facility for grid research
PNNL Institutional Computing (PIC)
Computing cluster for HPC applications
Ranked 179 on top 500 supercomputers in June 2012
In-house and competitive access to PNNL HPC requirements

9. State of the art PNNL test facilities (contd.)
9
Lab homes
Building technologies test facility
Fully equipped and functional homes
Separate baseline and experimental
homes for testing advanced
technologies
EV charging and smart appliances

10. State of the art PNNL test facilities (contd.)
10
PowerNET test bed
Cyber-physical and network
emulation test bed
Dynamically configurable
Web GUI with drag-and-drop network
configuration
Wide scale federated testing and
understand associated management
and security concerns
Hosts infrastructure such as
Synchrophasors
SCADA equipment
SCADA/Energy Management
System
Opal-RT HIL system

11. PowerNET demo: Testing cyber-attack
vulnerabilities on power systems
11

12. Developing power system test cases for HPC
applications
State-of-the-art:
Large network cases like western or eastern interconnection cases available
but not open source
Open source cases are obtained by stitching many smaller systems
artificially to create large cases
Our approach:
System expansion based on planning, engineering and best-practice
understanding
Attempt to preserve realistic nature of the power system
Power flow case development:
Largest size: 766,000 bus (transmission)
Tested with GridPACKTM and MATPOWER
12

13. Dynamic simulation case development under progress:
Development of open source large scale (30000 buses) power system
cases for dynamic simulation
Benchmarking ePHASORsim solver accuracy and performance against
other commercial (PSS/E and TSAT) and research grade (GridPACKTM)
dynamic simulation solvers
Funded by Opal-RT technologies
Open source sample network and dynamic data extracted from Alberta
ISO cases (source: http://www.aeso.ca/transmission/261.html)
13
Developing power system test cases for HPC
applications (contd.)

14. Questions???