Grants and Contributions:

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Title:
Next generation electromagnetic transient simulation tool for large-scale power systems with detailed equipment models
Agreement Number:
CRDPJ
Agreement Value:
$366,068.00
Agreement Date:
Feb 7, 2018 -
Organization:
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Location:
Alberta, CA
Reference Number:
GC-2017-Q4-00477
Agreement Type:
Grant
Report Type:
Grants and Contributions
Additional Information:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2021-2022).

Recipient's Legal Name:
Dinavahi, Venkata (University of Alberta)
Program:
Collaborative Research and Development Grants - Project
Program Purpose:

Electrical power systems are the largest man-made geographically distributed nonlinear structures that arex000D
composed of a variety of equipment such as generators, transformers, transmission lines, customer loads,x000D
spanning thousands of kilometers. Electromagnetic transient simulation (EMT) tools are used analyze andx000D
solve major operational and control problems in power systems. EMT simulation of large-scale power systemsx000D
consumes so much computational power that parallel programming techniques are urgently needed in this area.x000D
Currently available EMT simulation tools were designed to run on single-core CPUs, and therefore, cannotx000D
take advantage of the multi-core CPUs and many-core graphics processors (GPUs) to manage computationalx000D
load. Massive-thread computing is one of the key developments that can increase the EMT computationalx000D
capabilities substantially when the processing unit has enough hardware cores. The aim of this project is tox000D
develop a host of innovations towards implementing a parallel massive-thread EMT simulator for large-scalex000D
power systems on the GPU and multi-core CPU hardware architectures. The main features of this work is tox000D
design and build massive-thread models for various power system and power electronic components, finitex000D
element and finite difference time domain models, efficient numerical algorithms, advanced data analysis andx000D
visualization, and validation of the simulator.x000D
The project results are expected to prove the feasibility of a functional parallel massive-thread EMT simulatorx000D
that can achieve computational speed-up in large-scale system simulation while using very detailed systemx000D
component models. The main beneficiary of this project will be Manitoba HVDC Research Centre (MHRC)x000D
which can integrate the developed innovations into their flagship EMT simulation tool PSCAD/EMTDC. Thex000D
experienced team of highly qualified engineers trained in this project will contribute to the ongoingx000D
advancement of the EMT simulation technology and may prove to be valuable future employees for MHRC.