Performance achievement with symmetric multi-processor servers for EMS applications

Recent large blackouts in the world and electricity deregulation progress in Japan cause a lot of influences on the power network management from operational and technical points of view. It is more essential than ever to manage power network reliably, securely and economically. Under these circumstances, it is strongly needed for control centers to recognize the network power flow on-demand and as fast as possible, since increasing power wheeling makes it difficult to assume the power flow precisely in advance, while economical load dispatching control function that requires large amounts of numerical calculation is already put into practical use. To facilitate this functionality, high-performance computing with symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) servers is the key technology to success. In this paper, issues and their solutions to utilize SMP servers are clarified. Energy management systems (EMSs) to prevent blackout and to enable more economical power management can be realized through this study.