Design Considerations for Operational Power System Simulation Scenarios

This paper describes the design of power grid operational scenarios that can enable students or professionals to experience operating the grid. The scenarios are created using complex and realistic grid systems of varying sizes, and range from normal daily operations to extreme events. They can involve one or multiple participants based on the objectives of the training exercise, complexity of the system and tasks, etc. The main objective is to use these scenarios towards effective grid operations training, and research applications. The scenarios created include, 1) a voltage control scenario to simulate normal operations, 2) a geomagnetic disturbance (GMD) simulation to experience operating a simple grid model under a GMD, and 3) a multi-user scenario to simulate normal operations while communicating with a team. The paper introduces the simulation environment used, and describes the scenario design process including the learning objective, system variation, and the user interface and controls.