Advancing the adoption of advanced computing methods and technologies for real-time control center operations

Control center operation is becoming more complex as new and often-conflicting reliability, economics, and public policy issues emerge. Computer simulations will be required to analyze larger and larger amounts of system data (of different types) and what-if-scenarios to derive succinct information for operators to make informed decisions. Existing control center systems are primarily based on the original digital computing infrastructure first designed in the 1960-70's. Incremental changes have occurred since then addressing issues in a piecemeal fashion. Thus, today's systems do not take full advantage of computing power in their existing infrastructure or in the computing industry in general. Researchers should also scrutinize the existing fundamental power system algorithms with advancements in numerical algorithms and simulation techniques with the availability of new system data and additional demands and uncertainties exerted on the system. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is exploring advancements in computing technologies and power system problem solution methodologies to provide more timely and accurate information to control center operations. The authors have identified some long-term research goals and near-term research efforts to advance the adoption new computational technologies and simulation techniques in control center operations. This work considers both operations and operations planning (day-ahead) needs. A preliminary study of the use of Graphics Processing Units (GPU) for speeding up AC power flow is given as an example application.