CIMverter\u2013a template-based flexibly extensible open-source converter from CIM to Modelica

Lukas Razik,Markus Mirz,Jan Dinkelbach,Antonello Monti

doi:10.1186/s42162-018-0031-5

Abstract

Over the last decade, the Common Information Model (CIM), as specified by IEC 61970 / 61968, has become an important document format for the storage of power grid data. Its object-oriented design makes it easily maintainable and extensible for many use cases in the energy sector. As a result, more and more power grid analysis and simulation tools allow the import and export of CIM based power grid data. Unfortunately, many of them are proprietary and therefore not convenient in the research area since their component models and numerical back-ends often cannot be modified by the user. Thus, open-source alternatives are in demand, such as simulation environments based on the popular modeling language Modelica. Therefore, this paper presents our approach of a template based CIM to Modelica converter. The usage of templates makes it easily adaptable for the generation of Modelica system models targeting arbitrary Modelica libraries. The presented approach is implemented in an open-source project called CIMverter, evaluated on a real-world case with two Modelica power system libraries, and validated against a proprietary simulation tool.

Highlights

The Renewable Energy Directive requires the EU member states to fulfill at least 20 % of their total energy needs with a wide range of renewable energy technologies by 2020 (European Commission 2018)
The software project cim2modelica was published (Gómez et al 2018). It allows for defining direct mappings from Common Information Model (CIM) object attributes to the ones in Modelica by a Domain-Specific Language (DSL) as it is not possible in CIMverter. The disadvantages of this approach are: a programmer as well as the Modelica user have to make familiar with the DSL and it allows no data conversions, as it can be completely flexibly performed in CIMverter by C++ code within the Modelica Workshop
This paper presents an approach for the transformation from CIM to Modelica

Summary

Introduction

The Renewable Energy Directive requires the EU member states to fulfill at least 20 % of their total energy needs with a wide range of renewable energy technologies by 2020 (European Commission 2018). The presented approach is implemented in an open-source project called CIMverter, evaluated on a real-world case with two Modelica power system libraries, and validated against a proprietary simulation tool. The main contribution of this paper is the presentation of our open-source tool called CIMverter that transforms CIM documents into Modelica system models based on arbitrary Modelica libraries, as specified by the user.

Results

Conclusion