A PHP Application Library for Web-Based Power Systems Analysis

Abstract

Web-based power systems analysis applications are delivered via web servers that run scripting languages such as PHP. The role of the web server is usually to pass results and data between a front-end web browser and specialised back-end computation software which carries out the actual simulations and analysis. More recent versions of the web scripting languages have the computational capabilities required for power systems analysis and can handle the responsibility of modelling networks and analysing them. This provides an opportunity for a slimmer 2-tier framework in which the web server also acts as the application server thereby reducing the server resources required and simplifying access to modelling functions. A methodology for carrying out power flow calculations on a web server using PHP is described in this paper and the outcome is a PHP application library for carrying out such analysis. The library may be easily included in PHP web applications that require specific power systems analysis functions thereby allowing them access this functionality without relying on third party software separate from the web server on which they already run. The performance of the application library is also measured and discussed.