Steady State Analysis with Profiles – Multiprocessing

Load flow with profiles 

From an engineering analysis perspective, the module features a load flow with profiles functionality that offers a high degree of flexibility, leveraging timestamped datapoints from historical or forecast profiles for various variables and assets within a distribution grid.

This analysis enables users to:

• Run load flow analysis as a single-time, day-type or time-range simulation
• Execute multi-year 8760 and 576 types of load flow analysis
• Run strategic point load flow using a reference peak/minimum demand
• Accurately study and analyze the time-varying behavior of DERs, BESS, EV charging units, etc.
• Integrate with the CYME Advanced Project Manager* module to simulate a dynamic grid model that evolves over time (*requires CYME Advanced Project Manager module - prerequisite)
• Consume multi-year profiles with hourly or sub-hourly intervals for electrical and non-electrical variables such as kW, kVAr, PF and temperature
• Utilize behavioral profiles in p.u. or percentage to represent several customer types (residential, commercial, industrial, etc.) and generation types (solar, wind, etc.)
• Consume typical day profiles representing peak/minimum demand hours of a month or typical weekdays and weekends
• Precisely model the loading conditions of critical assets of the system at desired timeframes
• Identify off-peak overloads and abnormal voltage conditions that often go undetected using typical peak condition system analysis
• Validate device setting adjustments such as voltage regulators, switching capacitors, inverter/converter controls and load tap changers, considering load variation over a period

Time-series database

The module includes the time-series database (TSDB), the new generation of profile database in CYME that provides enhanced flexibility and improved performance. Designed to meet modern industry requirements, TSDB facilitates more efficient engineering analyses by accurately representing the dynamic behavior of distribution grid components through timestamped datapoints.

Key features of TSDB include:

• Expanded capacity to accommodate more datapoints required for multi-year hourly-based capacity planning analyses
• Improved access to datapoints, which boosts the run-time performance of relevant analyses such as steady state-analysis with profiles
• Tailored architecture to be efficient for cloud installation use cases
• Compatibility with versatile variables that can take time-series values for various electrical units and temperature profiles
• Ability to assign multiple profiles to the same asset, supporting scenario modeling
• Enabled to support the network demand disaggregation operation
• Integrated with a time-based network update function to fetch time-stamped values and update the corresponding variables in the grid model
• Capability to import profiles from the CYME profile database and its ASCII file formats while also supporting data import and export in new JSON file format

Multiprocessing

The module leverages a parallel processing approach to execute load flow with profile analysis, utilizing either local or remote* multiprocessing environments powered by CYME server technology (*requires additional licenses and deployment).

Key capabilities of this feature include:

• Automatically split and dispatch engineering analysis tasks into requests to execute them simultaneously on multiple processing units, reducing overall computation time
• Offload computation to remote servers or cloud-based resources, enabling analysis of large-scale datasets and long simulations
• Configurable processing parameters to optimize performance based on specific requirements
• Configurable to scale up or down based on the computational resources, making it easy to deploy
• Incorporate mechanisms to handle errors and failures during processing, ensuring robustness and reliability
• Seamlessly integrate with existing engineering analysis tools and workflows for a streamlined user experience
• Provide real-time feedback on processing status, progress and results for enhanced visibility and control

Charts, reports and results

The load flow with profiles analysis provides a wide range of reports and visualization capabilities, enabling users to gain deeper insights into the performance and behavior of monitored devices and networks.

Examples of the types of reports and charts that can be generated include:

• Network summary report that identifies total system losses, peak voltage and peak power
• Abnormal conditions report focuses on overloads and abnormal voltage conditions duration and percentage of a period, such as the number of hours/ days an equipment has been overloaded
• The load relief energy demand report leads the planner to evaluate
• Non-Wires Alternative (NWA) solutions to address capacity limits in the circuit
• Colored map layers that visually represent various parameters such as total duration and worst condition of asset abnormality, making it easy to identify hotspots or problem areas
• Tabular reports with customized values for monitored devices

Furthermore, the simulation artifacts (monitored values, reports, heat maps, etc.) can be saved in an active results database for various purposes such as future retrieval, sharing, reporting and decision-making.

This functionality enables users to:

• Open a result set for generating reports or plotting the monitored values
• Add the results to a planning summary* to compare with forecast data (*requires CYME Long-Term Planner module - prerequisite)
• Compare the results for different scenarios and evaluate the project impacts
• Retrieve information related to a result set, including the user, creation date, involved network, analysis parameters, and the name of the study or project