See Also
Time Step Actions are special actions that can be implemented during a Time Step Simulation run. These actions are very similar to contingency actions except that a model criteria and time delay must be specified. During a time step simulation run, a time step action will be implemented if is model criteria evaluates to true for the specified time delay.
At each time step, the model criteria for a time step action is evaluated. If it evaluates to true, a timer is started to determine how long the model criteria evaluates to true. If at any time step the model criteria evaluates to false, the timer will be stopped. If the timer has already been started, the model criteria still evaluates to true, and the specified time delay has been met or exceeded, the action will be implemented. Once a time step action is implemented during a time step simulation run, the action cannot be implemented again for the duration of that time step simulation run.
During the time step simulation, time step actions will only be evaluated and implemented if doing a complete time step simulation run. A complete run is one that is started using the Do Run button on the Time Step Simulation dialog and is allowed to run to completion without running any time steps out of order or repeating time steps. Time step actions are not currently used with any other tools.
The above describes how an individual time step action will be evaluated during a time step simulation run. For a description of the overall process of how switching time delays and time delay actions are applied during a time step simulation run, see the Time Step Simulation: Application of Time Delays topic.
Time step actions can be created or modified by accessing the Time Step Actions display available on the Model Explorer in the Solution Details folder or the Input page of the Time Step Simulation dialog. This display is a type of Case Information Display and has the abilities common to this type of display. To create a new time step action, right-click on the display and choose Insert. To modify an existing record, either edit the information directly in the table or right-click and choose Show Dialog to bring up the Time Step Actions dialog.
The Time Step Actions dialog is very similar to the Contingency Element dialog. Specifying Element Type and Action Type for time step actions is done in exactly the same manner as for contingency element actions, with a few exceptions. Time step actions do not allow the Element Types of Solve Power Flow or Contingency Block to be included. Time step actions must specify a Model Criteria. A time step action cannot be created without a valid model criteria. If at some point prior to the time step simulation run a model criteria gets deleted, a time step action using that model criteria will not be evaluated during the time step run. The Time Delay must also be specified for a time step action. The Time Delay is specified in whole seconds with the minimum allowed being 1. Valid Status options are CHECK and NEVER. Set the Status to NEVER to prevent a time step action from being evaluated and implemented during a time step simulation run.