A methodology for reducing the time necessary to generate virtual electric substations

In this work, an electric power energy utility company, called CEMIG, is a research partner with more than 50 electric substations, whose operation can be improved by using virtual environments. Therefore, time to model all these substations, with a high-level of required photorealism, is a critical issue. To achieve this goal, this paper presents a pertinent and appropriate methodology. First, data is retrieved from field components (CADs, satellite images, manufacturer sheets etc.) to model suitable electric components by means of dimensioning and angles. Next, rules such as cable connectors positioning and monitoring of the quantity of polygons (low-poly) are established. In addition, since each electric substation has circuit arrangements composed of different electric components, a pattern recognition tool is applied to extract information from 2D basic plants in order to generate automatic positioning of components within a virtual substation. Also, considering the need for control and monitoring of the electric system, in real time, a set of interface templates are provided to support direct access to data from supervisory system (SCADA), without the loss of immersion and navigation which are imperative for Virtual Reality applications. In the very first trials used for generating a virtual electric substation a lot of work and time was spent by our research team. After the establishment of the proposed methodology, results show that the time to generate new substations was reduced by the order of 83%.