Applications and Trends of High Performance Computing for Electric Power Systems: Focusing on Smart Grid

Abstract

Over the last 15 years, significant changes have occurred in the areas of electric power systems and high performance computing (HPC). HPC has seen the maturation of cluster computing, the advent of multi-core computing, the creation of grid and cloud computing, and the sudden rise of the graphics processing unit (GPU) for general purpose computing. These changes have also been coupled with the slow ending of Moore's law. Electric power systems have also undergone many changes including the introduction of the advanced metering infrastructure and other advanced technologies for data collection, the inclusion of renewable/distributed power generation, and the addition of electric vehicles as stochastic loads. Clear goals have also been set for the development of the smart grid-a unique cyber-physical system (CPS) that requires the interaction of the electric power system and HPC. As such, this work explores the many ways in which HPC will be used in the smart grid and its CPS in the future including real-time and off-line analysis, data mining/storage, intelligent coordination, security, simulation, and visualization.