Voltage contours for power system visualization

Power system engineers are presented with vast amounts of information to analyze during daily operations. In systems containing thousands of buses, it can be very difficult to assess the state of the power system in an intuitive and rapid manner. The paper discusses the use of contours for visualizing power system voltage data. Also, because of the low computation requirements of the contouring algorithm, the algorithm is implemented into a real-time animation of the voltage profile of a power system. The contouring routines are implemented into the PowerWorld/sup TM/ Simulator software package, with results shown for systems with up to several thousand buses. Experiments and interviews with system engineers are also discussed to measure the applicability of voltage contouring as an add-on to practical EMS systems.