To the best of my knowledge basically PSAT is a software developed by a researcher as a part of PhD thesis. It is a single line diagram oriented software like ETAP. As MATLAB is a 3-wire connection graphic view, PSAT as Tool will help to analyse with single line diagram visuals. It is very much useful for Load Flow analysis, Transient Stability studies. In regard with your question what exactly is your problem statement. Can you please elaborate so that I can give some input. Thank you.

@Srikanth: Can you please tell me what all are the available Matlab based simulators? I can then use it with respect to my problem statement.

Matlab based is the only requirement. And i have used Matdyn, Matpower and Matlab simulink already.

Have you checked in MATHWORKS website ?? There are some I feel.

MATPOWER is OK for getting the load flow solution. SIMULINK will give you the time domain analysis, i.e. in the form of Waveforms. Though we can run load flow too but I felt uncomfortable with the visuals. I'm familiar with PSAT and I hardly have any idea on other simulators. Can you just brief me or give an idea about your project, if u r interested to share. I'll try to give you some inputs.

@Sander..In regard with the question it is difficult to develop a big power system using SIMSCAPE. If you go through the product notes provided by MATLAB, you can find that SIMSCAPE is highly useful when you want model a DC Motor or Generator etc. It is very much useful for developing and simulating ElectroMechanical equipments.

@Sander & Jernimo.......Thank you for the quick response......this is how the activeness should be in researchgate.....Regarding the question, to the best of my knowledge, smartgrids use technology like, GPS and Satellite communication to transfer the recorded data of particular bus or a system or a region depending on the requirement. Now what I understand from the question is "any software which can help in simulating a smart grid i.e. a huge power system simulation with some data transfer control". Hence, I felt that SIMSCAPE will not help much, moreover SIMULINK will do. Anyways our responses haven't produced a fruitful answer. @Sander & Jeronimo do you know any other software which could be merged with MATLAB. Even I'm interested to know the same. Thanks in advance.

DIgSILENT's PowerFactory does very good power systems modelling. It has a whole section on distribution level modelling. You can program control systems within PowerFactory using their graphical DSL interface, which is similar to Simulink (but not as versatile or user friendly).

MathWorks are working on a package that will seamlessly interface Simulink with PowerFactory via a DLL. We're working with the MathWorks guys and are close to a first release. That way you have the ease of use of Simulink and the powerful power systems modelling tool of PowerFactory.

Hope that helps

Andrew

Please explain ur problem.. See my papers, i have developed some MATLAB tools and have utilized in my papers.

I think what I am going to tell here would not be a complete answer for your question, however the experience I am sharing here may help you develop your smart grid model using Matlab/Simulink.

Of course there detailed models of power system components in Matlab, but if you use them to construct a huge network,it would take enormous amount of time to simulate. Yet you may successfully develop a reasonable model, if you confine the model using abstraction according to your requirement.

For example, to experiment a control algorithm I developed to optimize the power output from distributed energy resources (DER), I modeled each element using their transfer function, assuming that all underlying components were taken care of by suitable control systems. Moreover, it is reasonable to assume some level of aggregation of DER in Smart Grid environment. With all these assumptions I was able to develop a model of a micro grid on which I tested my algorithm.

Similar abstractions that would not disturb your ultimate research, I hope would make your job easier.

Hello Akansha Singh

The following line may help you in choosing the apt tool for simulating the distribution level of smart grid.

a. If your focus is on steady-state operation of the modern distribution systems then OpenDSS is the best package. You can also link this with MATLAB. DSS has sound library (such as, hourly simulation tools) of DERs and online forum-help.

b. If you are interested in transient analysis of the distribution system then, I would suggest PSCAD, which is again a unparalleled tool.

c. If you are looking for a tool to simulate DR concepts and device level control of appliances connected then GridLAB-D is an unparalleled package.

You can also use NEPLAN software for some simulations on industrial power system. However, you should take care that you will find only radial power systems if you go with some examples of say Steel industry or Manufacturing industry etc.

There is significant consensus among leading experts in electrical power industry that Smart Grid interoperability is the number one technical issue with respect to Smart Grid implementation. This is because, there is no real smart solution if the building blocks – Hardware (HW) and Software (SW) products – do not communicate with each other using the same “language”.

Smart Grid implementation starts with design. The first step in every design is to create technical description that represent the Smart Grid. These descriptions, for an electrical grid system (aka configuration, or topology), are known as power system models. There are models of individual components of power system, and models of complete power system (Smart Grid).

On today’s market, there is a significant number of software packages for creating models. The following is a representative list of some software products:

ACAD GridLab-D Simpow

ArcPro MATEMPTP SKM

ASPEN Line Constants MATLAB/Simulink SmartPlant

ASPEN OneLiner MATPOWER SPARD

ATP-EMTP NETPLAN SSAT

AutoCAD Electrical OpenDSS Substation Assistant

CAPE PAT TSAT

CDEGS PCFLO UWPLOW

CDT PCFLOH VSAT

CYME PLS-CADD VST

DigSilent Power Factory Power World WinAGS

DSATools PSAP WindMil

EasyPower PSAT

EDSA PSCAD/EMTDC

EMTP-RV PSP

ERACS PSS/E

EST PST

ETAP RETscreen

EuroStag RTDS

GE PSLF RT-Lab

Such a wide spectrum of software packages creates an extremely difficult task for power industry to do power system analysis, to keep models up to date, etc.

Different software packages have somewhat different objectives, but many of the functionalities within those software packages are similar. Unfortunately, there is no comprehensive comparison of those objectives and functionalities. As consequence, a lot of human resources and money is wasted.

MATLAB is the most wide-spread software package for educational purpose, but it is not used in real-life applications in power industry. MATLAB is great software used in many aspects of our life, but power industry has been developing other software packages for their use for years. Now, it is impossible to “marry them together”.

The most commonly used software in power industry is PSS/E, although it is, unfortunately, the most expensive one. Practically all primary equipment in power system (such as generators, transformers, motors, power lines, reactors, capacitors, distributed generators, renewables etc…) are modeled in PSS/E. The most important use of these models might be for post-mortem analysis of large scale outages of power system. The power outages cause billions dollar in damage to society every year.

Lack of Smart Grid interoperability between all these software packages is big problem. The problem is not just waste of human resources/ money. Lack of interoperability between modeling software packages contributes to large scale outages in power systems. Here is example.

Several government organizations (US DoE, FERC, NERC, WECC) and utilities regularly conduct post-mortem analyses of large scale outages to assess Hazard, Risk and Vulnerabilities of power system. These investigations lead to the conclusion that power system modeling practice within power industry is actually contributing factor to cascaded wide-spread outages. Existing practice among power utilities is to have multiple software packages for power system modeling, particularly two separate software packages for Protection system modeling and for Planning modeling. With respect to protective relay operations during these outages, the following factors were identified as contributing to the protection miss-operation:

- Overly conservative relay settings

- Cascading relay trips due to loadings

- System protection operating too quickly

- Coordination of Remedial Action Scheme not adequately tested

Lack of interoperability between software packages used by Protection engineers and Planning engineers makes it impractical to analyze power disturbances under all conditions. In other words, because during the design of power system not all possible contingencies within real-life are addressed, the protection scheme malfunctioned causing the forced outages.

So, recommendation is that protection requirements should be adequately modeled in planning studies so that the impact of the protection system behavior on power system stability can be properly studied. The power system can be correctly designed only if different software packages for power system modeling are interoperable.

Thanks a lot Dalibor Kladar for this informative post. This is definitely going to help a lot of people working in smart grid domain!!

Is there any farther updates in this post

Thanks for those how give very good insights about this question