Development of geospatial power system planning models

This paper presents GHD’s novel process for building geospatial power system models of UK Distribution Network Operator (DNO) National Grid Energy Distribution’s (NGED) Medium Voltage (MV) network for use in PSS®SINCAL. A Proof of Concept (PoC) model was created using Feature Manipulation Engine (FME) to demonstrate how data from a Geographic Information System (GIS) could be used to create accurate power system models. The PoC identified areas for development, leading to a comprehensive specification for the full model creation process. The project saw the development of an automated process to create over 1,000 MV substation models from the latest network asset data, enabling power system analysis to be undertaken regularly by over 50 network planning engineers. The automated model process has accelerated connection timescales, enabled accurate power system analysis, and supported the transition from DNO to Distribution System Operator (DSO). This paper describes the methodology, models, and data processing steps, summarising the project’s learnings.