cimpyorm – a queryable python CIM-Cache for smart grid applications

Abstract

The increasing complexity of energy systems, with an increasing share of intermittent renewable generation and electrification of traditionally fossil energy sectors, requires a higher degree of coordination. Amongst grid operators, this comprises congestion management and concurrent planning. A common requirement is sharing equivalent grid models of each other's network areas so that neighboring grid operators can incorporate them into their own congestion forecast. The Common Information Model (CIM) provides a standardized, object-oriented representation of energy systems for this exchange. Many different open source libraries are used for system modeling and optimization, most of which come with their own internal data models. Up until now, CIM is not readily available as an import/export option for most of these libraries due to the effort of maintaining custom converters. This paper introduces cimpyorm, a middleware that provides a flexible python object mapping of CIM models for inclusion in import/export functionalities of these libraries.