Introduction to PowerWorld Simulator

 

PowerWorldÒ Simulator (Simulator) is a power system simulation package designed from the ground up to be user-friendly and highly interactive. Simulator has the power for serious engineering analysis, but it is also so interactive and graphical that it can be used to explain power system operations to non-technical audiences. With each new version we’ve continued to make Simulator more powerful and easier to use with the addition of a number of major new features and hundreds of smaller enhancements.

Simulator consists of a number of integrated products. At its core is a comprehensive, robust Power Flow Solution engine capable of efficiently solving very large systems. This makes Simulator quite useful as a stand-alone power flow analysis package. Unlike other commercially available power flow packages, however, Simulator allows the user to visualize the system through the use of full-color animated oneline diagrams complete with zooming and panning capability. System models can be either modified on the fly or built from scratch using Simulator’s full-featured graphical case editor. Transmission lines can be switched in (or out) of service, new transmission or generation can be added, and new transactions can be established, all with a few mouse clicks. Simulator’s extensive use of graphics and animation greatly increases the user’s understanding of system characteristics, problems, and constraints, as well as how to remedy them.

The base package of Simulator is capable of solving power systems comprised of up to 250,000 buses. Please contact PowerWorld if you need to model more buses than this. The base package also contains all the tools necessary to perform integrated economic dispatch, area transaction economic analysis, power transfer distribution factor (PTDF) computation, short circuit analysis, and contingency analysis. All of the above features and tools are easily accessible through a consistent and colorful visual interface. These features are so well integrated that you will be up and running within minutes of installation.

In addition to the features of the base Simulator package, various add-on tools are available, including the new transient stability feature. Please see Introduction to Simulator Add-On Tools for more information.