Ask Your Question

Revision history [back]

click to hide/show revision 1
initial version

Philosophy for choosing channels to plot

I will describe below our current process for plotting channels from our dynamic simulations:

  • Get updated .sav case and snap files every year. The .snp file has a number of channels in it, which were added by the party who created the case.
  • Copy the network data from the .sav case (particularly Bus Number, Bus Name, Base kV, and Are Num columns) into an Excel worksheet (Bus Export tab). Same procedure for machines (on the "Machine Export" tab) and branches.
  • Flag the buses which were not included in the original channels in the .snp file and that we would like to plot channels for (by typing an 'x' in the cell beside it).
  • Through Excel formulas, a column in the Bus Export Tab generates the code for an .idv which we call "Channel Update". When we run this .idv, it adds additional channels to the .snp file, starting on the next available channel in the original .snp file. (rotor angle, apparent impedance, Pout, Qout for machines, bus voltages, angles, and frequency, branch flows, etc.)
  • Go into the updated .snp file (from the GUI) and copy the channel data to an Excel worksheet (Plot Export tab).
  • Flag which of these channels we would like to plot, again, by typing an 'x' next to it (We don't want to plot every single channel for every bus, machine, or branch that was added).
  • Again, through Excel formulas, a column in the "Plot Export" tab generates the code for an .idv (Plot Template.idv) which plots the channels. This essentially uses PSSPLT to produce the plots.

We are looking to transform the way that we run our dynamic simulation from an .idv-based system, to running more Python scripts. For the purpose of plotting, what ideas do you have for accomplishing this task? I have experimented with some scripts that use Matplotlib and also Dyntools to plot channels from .out files.

However, there is a bit more complexity to our setup than what I have seen done using Python, given that we need a way to:

  1. Choose which additional channels we want to add to the .snp file
  2. Add these new channels to the .snp file
  3. Set up the plot options (min, max, plots per page, etc). We currently do this in the "Plot Template" idv)
  4. Plot the channels

Any ideas or insight into how other folks are accomplishing a similar task would be greatly appreciated.

Philosophy for choosing channels to plot

I will describe below our current process for plotting channels from our dynamic simulations:

  • Get updated .sav case and snap files every year. The .snp file has a number of channels in it, which were added by the party who created the case.
  • Copy the network data from the .sav case (particularly Bus Number, Bus Name, Base kV, and Are Area Num columns) into an Excel worksheet (Bus Export tab). Same procedure for machines (on the "Machine Export" tab) and branches.
  • Flag the buses which were not included in the original channels in the .snp file and that we would like to plot channels for (by typing an 'x' in the cell beside it).
  • Through Excel formulas, a column in the Bus Export Tab generates the code for an .idv which we call "Channel Update". When we run this .idv, it adds additional channels to the .snp file, starting on the next available channel in the original .snp file. (rotor angle, apparent impedance, Pout, Qout for machines, bus voltages, angles, and frequency, branch flows, etc.)
  • Go into the updated .snp file (from the GUI) and copy the channel data to an Excel worksheet (Plot Export tab).
  • Flag which of these channels we would like to plot, again, by typing an 'x' next to it (We don't want to plot every single channel for every bus, machine, or branch that was added).
  • Again, through Excel formulas, a column in the "Plot Export" tab generates the code for an .idv (Plot Template.idv) which plots the channels. This essentially uses PSSPLT to produce the plots.

We are looking to transform the way that we run our dynamic simulation from an .idv-based system, to running more Python scripts. For the purpose of plotting, what ideas do you have for accomplishing this task? I have experimented with some scripts that use Matplotlib and also Dyntools to plot channels from .out files.

However, there is a bit more complexity to our setup than what I have seen done using Python, given that we need a way to:

  1. Choose which additional channels we want to add to the .snp file
  2. Add these new channels to the .snp file
  3. Set up the plot options (min, max, plots per page, etc). We currently do this in the "Plot Template" idv)
  4. Plot the channels

Any ideas or insight into how other folks are accomplishing a similar task would be greatly appreciated.