Enabling Computing Techniques for Wide-Area Power System Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Power systems are enduring extraordinary transformations. The substitution of large conventional power plants with dispersed renewable power generators connected to both transmission and distribution networks, variations in energy consumption, the expectation of enhanced system security and resiliency and growing dependence on automated systems all have a significant impact on the daily operation of the electrical grid. Increasing uncertainty levels are one of the direct consequences of these changes: the randomness of renewable energy sources, the complicated electricity market price dynamics and the uncertain load behaviour are some of the most challenging issues to be addressed by system operators. These complex and uncertainties directly influence real-time grid operation. Simultaneously, due to the decrease of power system inertia created by replacing large rotating generators with distributed inverter-based renewable power generators, it is becoming more susceptible to dynamic perturbations.

In addition, the data streaming obtained by the distributed grid sensors cannot inform power system operators directly, who must undertake exhaustive numerical computations focused on improving situational awareness, with the essential measures and alerts to control the system and avoid significant grid perturbations or avoid the impacts of several contingencies.

The purpose of the proposed Topic on “Enabling Computing Techniques for Wide-Area Power System Applications” is to provide a comprehensive view on the development of enhanced power system operations tools, which include wide-area monitoring protection and control systems, which enable system-wide data processing for improving situational awareness, mitigating the impacts of significant disturbances and reducing the probability of catastrophic events.

Topics of interest for this Topic include but are not limited to:

• Application and designs of wide-area monitoring protection and control systems;
• Communication networks for wide-area monitoring protection and control systems;
• Uncertainties modeling and management in wide-area power system applications;
• Knowledge discovery from large-scale synchrophasor datasets;
• Cardinality reduction and data compression;
• Learning techniques for high-performance computing.

Dr. Chun Sing Lai
Dr. Ahmed F. Zobaa
Dr. Alfredo Vaccaro
Topic Editors