Show HN: Power system simulation on GNU Octave in WASM (opens in new tab)

(matpower.app)

3 pointsrwlincoln6y ago9 comments

9 comments

4 comments · 1 top-level

7thaccount6y ago· 3 in thread

This is pretty neat, but can the creator show what it would look like on a realistic system with Ex: 20k+ buses. This is not uncommon in the industry.

I'm also curious about why a web GUI is being used here? Power Systems information varies by country, but is generally not something that will ever be publically available, so desktop applications have done well here.

After more thinking, I guess it's a free way for researchers to upload and run public models using free software?

rwlincolnOP6y ago

There are some test cases included in MATPOWER that are around that size and may be imported. I only embedded small test cases in the application to keep the download size down.

I imagine this app being quite useful to lecturers teaching Power Engineering at Universities. Being able to just send students a link and not requiring them to install complex libraries, deal with licenses or restricted trial versions and them not having to use a particular OS or CPU architecture should help get them started quickly.

https://github.com/MATPOWER/matpower/tree/master/data

7thaccount6y ago

Thanks for the reply. I'll have to test out the larger models (mainly for curiosity).

Agree that it could be of use for lecturers as most students don't need the full power of PSSE or PowerWorld for the stuff you do in introductory textbooks.

Best of luck in this. I recall during the last FERC Conference on Software that there was at least one academic presentation where they talked about trying to find a good way to visualize these things with a web browser. I can't remember what the specific challenges were though.

7thaccount6y ago

Btw...checked out your open source apps. Nice work. I just wish industry was bigger into building their own tools (like was common in the 80s when everyone wrote their own loadflow tools) instead of being reliant upon vendors for everything. There are advantages though to both.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

9 comments

4 comments · 1 top-level

7thaccount6y ago· 3 in thread

This is pretty neat, but can the creator show what it would look like on a realistic system with Ex: 20k+ buses. This is not uncommon in the industry.

After more thinking, I guess it's a free way for researchers to upload and run public models using free software?

rwlincolnOP6y ago

There are some test cases included in MATPOWER that are around that size and may be imported. I only embedded small test cases in the application to keep the download size down.

https://github.com/MATPOWER/matpower/tree/master/data

7thaccount6y ago

Thanks for the reply. I'll have to test out the larger models (mainly for curiosity).

Agree that it could be of use for lecturers as most students don't need the full power of PSSE or PowerWorld for the stuff you do in introductory textbooks.

7thaccount6y ago

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse