Improved Real-Time Computation Engine for a Dispatcher Training Center of the European Transmission Network

Dispatcher Training Simulators (DTS) are fundamental tools used by Transmission System Operators (TSO's) and Distribution System Operators (DSO's) around the world to train their dispatchers on frequent or uncommon situations. DTS widely used are generally based on simplified models for the system dynamics (static modelling or very simplified dynamics) and are limited to small/medium systems due to constraints in computational performance. Taking into account fast dynamics on large system is a real challenge for the simulation engine of a DTS. Indeed, in order to represent effectively the reaction of the power system, the simulation must be carried out very close to real-time. The PEGASE project addressed this challenge on the European Transmission Network (ETN). Many different algorithms were investigated and several have been implemented in a prototype based on FAST, a full-dynamic DTS simulation engine developed by Tractebel Engineering S.A. and integrated in the Energy Management System (EMS) of several TSO's. This paper describes the considered algorithmic improvements and presents numerical results (both in terms of accuracy and efficiency) obtained on a representation of the whole ETN.