Interface Display Objects

See Also

 

Interface display objects are used on the onelines to visualize the flow of power through an interface record. Interface records are used to show the net real power (MW) flow on a group consisting of one or more of the following devices: 1) transmission lines and/or transformers, 2) total tie-lines between two adjacent areas, and 3) total tie-lines between two adjacent zones. Only area-area and zone-zone interface records can be displayed using interface display objects.

Interfaces, like transmission lines, are represented as multi-segment lines, except that they may be drawn between area/zone objects in addition to buses. Drawing interface display objects involves the same steps as drawing transmission lines and transformers. The line thickness and color of interface objects may be customized by selecting from the Formatting ribbon group on the Draw ribbon tab.

Interface Fields and Interface Pie Charts are often placed close to or on the interface to indicate the power flow through the device.

Run Mode

When animation is active, the flow of the arrows on the interface object may represent either the MW flow through the interface or the currently calculated power transfer distribution factor (PTDF) pertaining to that interface. You can customize the appearance of the animated flows using the Animated Flows Tab of the Oneline Display Options Dialog available using the local menu.

Right-click on the interface to view the Interface Dialog for the interface.

Edit Mode

The quickest method of inserting new interface objects is to use the Auto Insert > Interfaces from the Quick Insert ribbon group on the Draw ribbon tab. Please see Automatically Inserting Interfaces for details.

To manually add a new interface object to the case, first select Aggregation > Interface from the Individual Insert ribbon group on the Draw ribbon tab. Then place the cursor on the starting location for the interface (usually an area/zone object or a bus object) and left-click. Add more segments to the interface by moving the cursor and the left-clicking at the end of the segment. To finish adding an interface, place the cursor on the terminal object for the interface and double-click. This then calls up the Interface Dialog. Either select an existing interface, or define a new interface (see Interface Dialog for details).

Interfaces can be anchored to either area/zone objects or bus objects.

To change the shape of the interface, first left-click on the object to select it. This causes handles to appear at each vertex. You can then move any vertex by dragging it with the left mouse button down. To remove a vertex, hold down the CTRL key and then click the vertex you would like to delete. To add a vertex, hold down the CTRL key and then click on the interface where you would like to add the vertex.