IEEE Power and Energy Society (PES) Brac University Student Branch Chapter hosted a workshop on the 2nd of March in collaboration with BUET Energy Club on “Power System Research and Simulation Tools”. The workshop was conducted by the esteemed faculty member, Md. Nahid Haque Shazon, Lecturer, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Brac University. He was also the former ‘Treasurer’ of the IEEE PES BUET Student Branch. He has numerous publications in scientific journals and international conferences and his current research focuses on Low Inertia Power Systems, Microgrids, Load Shedding Methodology, etc.
Md. Nahid Haque Shazon divided the workshop into five different segments. Firstly, he discussed the current scopes and emerging topics in the power sector, then he moved on to the introduction and the background of the software PSSE. After introducing the software PSSE (PSS®E – high-performance transmission planning and analysis software) to the audience, he showed some possible scenarios of the simulation network and later he performed a hands-on simulation of a network followed by a Q&A session.
He started by clearing out a common misconception which we often hear that there are limited or no research opportunities in the power sector or the power sector is very much saturated. He gave us a brief idea of the emerging research topics in the power sector which is being explored all over the world. Some of those topics include power system frequency control technologies in low inertia systems, smart grid, cyber security in smart grid, smart load shedding technologies, 100% renewable-based grid, etc.
Before introducing PSSE to the audience, Md. Nahid Haque Shazon briefly explained how the power system works in the three different ways in which the power system stores energy which are the inductances and capacitors of the transmission lines, transformers and shunt devices, the rotational inertia of the turbine generators, and the thermodynamic processes of the power plants. We learned that these operations can be performed using PSSE software, which is principally concerned with the power system dynamic behavior associated with the energy stored in the rotational inertia of the system. Furthermore, he explained the stability of the power system which is usually the ability of the individual generators to remain in synchronism with one another after a system disturbance such as ground faults and the subsequent opening of a transmission line.
Next, he provided us with a sample simulation network and how one would carry that out in the PSSE software. We learned the two most crucial steps are finding the power flow solution and the dynamic solution of the system which can be calculated and handled using the PSSE software. The simulation in PSSE, it can be done in four steps.
- Examining or designing the physical equipment and setting the parameters correctly.
- Transferring the physical model into the PSSE model for a given system
- Using the PSSE programs to process the data, perform calculations
- Interpreting the data
After explaining these steps, Md. Nahid Haque Shazon performed the simulation while explaining each step and showed the sample solution of the output of the system. He further explained what changes in output could be caused by using a different set of parameters. He also depicted the programming part of the software which is done using the Python language.
The workshop was then followed by a Q&A session where our speaker answered different queries and questions that our audience had. In terms of participation, we had over 80 students from different universities all over Bangladesh such as Brac University, BUET, KUET, CUET, IUT, and many more. The organizers, IEEE PES Brac University Student Branch Chapter and BUET Energy Club expressed their gratitude towards our speaker by providing him with a certificate of appreciation. On behalf of the IEEE PES Brac University Student Branch Chapter, the Chair, Sheikh Faiyadh Zillur, Chair of IEEE PES Brac University Student Branch Chapter, expressed his optimism for more remarkable collaborations like this one with BUET Energy Club in the future.
