Graphically Integrated Distributed Planning and Problem Solving Environment

Power system planning and decision support is a complex process requiring large scale modelling, analysis and optimisation. The large scale aspect of the problem as well as the continuing necessity and pressure for upgrading existing computer platforms to address the problem has plagued the attempts to design and implement comprehensive planning and decision support environments for power systems. In this paper the authors describe the development of a Graphically Integrated Distributed Planning and Problem Solving Environment (GIDP&PSE) for power systems. The distributed platform consists of a network of interconnected personal computers and other peripheral devices. The primary aim of the research was to implement a comprehensive and graphically integrated software environment on a heterogeneous distributed hardware platform, providing tools for the user to model, simulate and analyse large scale power systems. Following the conceptual description of the system, several of the key areas are described in detail. In the paper the analysis of the power systems hierarchical data structure is presented and the data structure of the environments database is also described