Implicit - integration dynamics simulation with the GridPACK framework

Fast dynamics simulation of large-scale power systems is a computational challenge because of the need to solve a large set of stiff, nonlinear differential-algebraic equations (DAE) at every time step. This paper presents a new implicit-integration dynamics simulation application added to the GridPACK™ framework. This new dynamics simulation application uses implicit integration schemes and offers several features such as variable time-stepping capabilities, automatic network partitioning, and accurate handling of discontinuities. The implementation details of this new dynamics simulation application is discussed in this paper and performance results are presented for a large 12,000 bus network.

I. Introduction

Power systems undergo disturbances of various types, including balanced and unbalanced short circuits, outage of generators, transmission lines and other equipment, breaker tripping, etc. [1]. System planning engineers routinely conduct dynamic security assessment (DSA) studies to analyze the impact of different events, such as a new generator interconnection request or a new equipment installation (e.g. SVCs), or the loss of critical lines or loads. Such studies require the simulation of a lot of what-if scenarios that analyze the system impact of disturbances relative to the base case and different contingency conditions. Typically, such studies for large utility networks are extremely time-consuming and hence DSA is restricted to offline analysis.