An Open-Source Power System Simulation Toolchain for Teaching, Research, and Industrial Use

Abstract

This paper describes a fully open-source toolchain for the modelling and simulation of phasor-based, balanced 3-phase AC system models, based on the OpenModelica compiler, the PowerGrids 2.0.0 Modelica library, and the open-source solvers IDA, Kinsol, and KLU. The toolchain includes a graphical user interface for model editing and result visualization. A notable feature is the automatic generation and solution of the initial static power flow, which provides good initial guess values for the steady-state initialization of the dynamic model, ensuring robust initialization; this feature can be disabled, and the results of external power flow tools can be used instead. The toolchain currently handles models with up to about 100 buses, making it attractive for teaching and research use, but is planned to be able to handle models with thousands of buses in the near future. This will be achieved thanks to new code generation features currently under development in OpenModelica and will open the way to industrial use.