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Time-Step Weather Example

This example shows how historic and forecast ERA5 weather files can be loaded into PowerWorld Simulator and be used to determine the Max MW capability of wind and solar generation. Features such as contouring and geographic data views (GDV) are also applied to enhance visualization and interpretation. The files may be downloaded here.

Here is an example procedure:

  1. Open the case, “ACTIVSg10kWeather.pwb”. (The included one-line diagrams should open if they are in the same directory.)
  2. Open the one-line diagram “NorthAmerica_CloudCoverPercent.pwd” (if it did not automatically load with the case) and select the saved view “Western” (from Onelines -> Save View).
  3. Open the one-line diagram “NorthAmerica_Windmsec100m.pwd” (if it did not automatically load with the case) and select the saved view “Western” (from Onelines -> Save View).
  4. Optionally solve the power flow and store the state so it may be restored later. (Tools -> Restore)
  5. Load the wind and solar model aux file, “ACTIVSg10kPFW.aux”
    • These models describe how solar capacity is affected by cloud cover percentage and how wind generation is impacted by wind speed at 100m elevation above ground level.
    • They assume a basic solar model and that all wind generators are IEC Class 2 (medium wind, 8.5 m/s average annual wind speed. Simulator currently has models for wind classes 1, 2, 3, and 4.
  6. Load the injection group definitions aux file, “InjectionGroups.aux”. This contains separate injection groups for wind, solar, and thermal generators.
  7. Open Time Step Simulation dialog from the Tools Ribbon
    • Click the “Read TSB File” button and choose “ACTIVSg10kWeather.tsb”.
    • Click the “Read PWW File” button and choose “Western1971_Q3.pww”; Choose NO to deleting existing time data (want to append instead)
  8. Initially toggle all Solution Types to “Apply Only (with Weather)”.
  9. Toggle all Store Result Solution fields to “YES”.
  10. Click the “Do Run” button to process all the time points. When finished, examine the generation mix in the Injection Group results.
    • Wind and solar output reflect the weather inputs, but the thermal generators are unchanged.
    • This is because the power flow is not solved and the balance between generation and load is not enforced.
  11. Click the “Show Stored Solutions Playback Control Dialog” button.
    • Decheck “Save Oneline Images as JPEGs or PNGs…” and check “Allow Playback of Times with No Stored States…”
    • Click the “Start/Continue” button and observe changing one-line diagram contours and size of substation geographic data view (GDV) ovals for wind and solar generation substations.
    • The movies below show the Cloud Cover Percent and Wind Speed at 100m (0.1s runtime = 1h simulation time). Yellow ovals represent solar generation. Green ovals represent wind generation.

  1. Toggle all Solution Types to “Single Solution” and repeat the run.
    • Observe the injection group results; the thermal generation now responds to follow the renewable generation.
    • Optionally plot one or more of the Injection Group MW columns; below is a graph of the first week (Start Row=1, End Row=168) of the wind and solar injection groups.

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February 20, 2024