4.0 PSCAD/EMTDC
The EMTDC program is developed to evaluate concepts, ideas and models portions of planned or existing power systems. The tasks required to set-up, run, and analyse the results of a simulation is further simplified with the development of PSCAD, a graphical user interface for EMTDC furthermore EMTDC does all the calculations required. The interface between PSCAD and EMTDC is shown in Figure 4-1.
File Manager
Draft TX Line/Cable Run Time Multi-Plot
Information EMTDC Program Output Files Data
Multiple simulator architectures such as EMTDC can be supported by PSCAD. The "Draft" and "RunTime " modules are quite similar, diversity between these two modules depends solely on the simulator architecture. The two modules are capable of switching between these architectures after start-up and by specifying default simulator architecture in the "File Manager", adds convenience to this software. This value will be passed to the "Draft" and "Runtime" modules on program startup. The "Draft", "RunTime" and "MultiPlot" functions are discussed in more detail following section.
4.1 Draft
A power system circuit layout module called “Draft” in PCSAD enables the user to draw graphical representations of power systems. These graphical representations are analysed which results in the creation of simulation data files for PSCAD's "Runtime" executive modules.
Procedure of opening the "Draft" from "File Manager" module are firstly, open the desired project/case directory then select the "Draft" button from the File Manager's Process Area. The "Draft" module contains several different areas in which the three most important areas are:
Top Menu Area - contains controls for the global functions of the module
Drawing Canvas - the power system to be simulated is drawn in this region
Component Palette - contains components used to draw the power system
"Help" button found on the top menu enable the user to learnt more about the “DRAFT" module.
A "Draft" circuit drawing or system can have many pages known as " subsystems ". The name and comment of each individual subsystem can be entered on the "subsystem properties form", which is accessible using the "PROERPTIES" item on the "SUBSYSTEM" menu.
Printing of the circuit that has been drawn can be done easily, simply select the "POSTSCRIPT" option of the "PRINT" menu. The same procedure applies if the user choses to save the circuit drawn simply select the “File” menu and then save.
To compile the circuit, select the "COMPILE" option, which will produce all files necessary to run the simulation. An error free system will produce a text saying that "Compile complete, with 0 error(s) 0 warning(s)" which will appear in the message box along the bottom edge of the "Draft" window. Nevertheless, if there are errors, error warnings explaining the source of the errors will appear. Check through the errors and rectify them before compiling it again. Once its all clear, the next step would be to "Run" them, which bring us to the "Runtime" simulations.
4.2 Runtime
A module for managing, controlling and interfacing with multiple power system simulations cases, each of which may be running on any of the computer system's support architectures in the EMTDC system is called “RUNTIME”.
Starting the "Runtime" from the "File Manager" module, consist of the same procedure when the user wants to start the “DRAFT” module. Open the desired project/case directory, and select the "Runtime" button from the File Manager's Process Area. When "Runtime" is selected, a single EMTDC Operator's Console window is automatically created and displayed. Listed below is the information required in order to simulate a power system circuit from the EMTDC Operator's Console.
The EMTDC library dimension version to use
The Fortran dynamics and output subroutine filenames, as well as any other subroutine files to be included.
The information file and the starting data or snapshot file.
As these items are a requirement, the "Draft" module will creates a "Runtime" batch file with default information when a system is recompiled
To load the "Batch" file, just select "Load" option from "Batch" menu. Then select the file that is meant for loading and then click "Proceed".
To simulate the system, select "Plot" option in the "Create" menu. This will open the plot component's "Properties Form", where the required data to be simulated is selected and the appearance of the plot may be controlled. Click " Proceed" after everything is done. To run the simulation clicks the play button. Along side the play button, there are other control buttons that controls the status of the simulation like the start, pause, single step and stop. To print out the graphs simulated, just go to "MultiPlot".
4.3 MultiPlot
“MULTIPLOT” is available in the system for printing the required waveforms. It has a flexible interface, which enables the user to create multi page arrangements, each page containing any number of graphs and text labels, and each graph containing any number of data channels.
To start "MulitPlot" from the "File Manager" module, the desired project/case directory is opened and "MultiPlot" is selected form the File Manager's Process Area. The are two main screens subdivision in "MultiPlot" are:
Top menu area of the "Multiplot" window contains menus and buttons which provides access to various operations