Information management and visualization in electric power systems

As the electricity industry becomes increasingly competitive, knowledge concerning the capacity, constraints and reliability of the electric system will become a commodity of great value. Electricity markets can be fast changing; understanding the implications of these changes before others can give an important competitive advantage. Power systems, however, are characterized by extremely large sets of data that cover spatial, temporal and contingent dimensions. Therefore the focus of this mini-track is on the management and visualization of the information associated with power markets and power systems. This year there were four accepted papers. The first paper, “Visualization and Animation of Inverter-Driven Induction Motor Operations” addresses power system visualization at the component level. Power systems are characterized by devices with many different characteristics and widely varying time frames of response. In some situations, understanding the response of the entire system requires having a detailed knowledge of the individual components. The first paper presents an overview of a component-based virtual power system simulation and visualization environment. The paper then demonstrates these concepts with the example of an inverter-driven induction motor. The second paper, “Real-time Data Retrieval and New Visualization Techniques for the Energy Industry”, moves from a micro to a macro view of the power system. Rather than providing detailed visualizations of the individual components, the second paper presents some innovative methods for providing a visualization of the high level operation of the power grid. The paper makes a very useful contribution in providing some case study results