Siemens enables complete digital model for largest US TSO’s physical grid

The energy giant will replace American Electric Power’s (AEP’s) protection simulation operation software with PSSCAPE with the aim of establishing software interoperability and setting up a digital model of their transmission grid.

As grid planning and operations become more complex, traditional, manual practices for sharing model data across departments are no longer optimal.

The software upgrade from Siemens is hoped to enable the Ohio-based TSO – cited as the largest in the US – to synchronize and exchange model data across planning, operations and protection.

This in turn, according to Siemens, will accelerate the energy transition by enabling the integration of decentralised renewable energy resources into the grid.

“We’re proud to partner with AEP as it works to break down data barriers across three traditionally separate utility departments – planning, protection and operations,” stated Sabine Erlinghagen, CEO of Siemens Grid Software.

“By leveraging a complete digital model of the physical grid, AEP can quickly adapt to grid changes while increasing renewable capacity efficiently, safely and reliably. This is the reason we have launched the grid software suite to enable utilities to better manage the increasing complexity of power grids and most importantly, to keep the grids stable.”

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Transmission digital model

The partnership will see AEP create a unified digital model of its entire transmission network, called T-Nexus, consisting of one common network model that all departments work from to ensure reliable planning, operation and protection of the power grid.

This will help accelerate the adoption of changes to the energy grid, including the increase of inverter-based renewable energy resources, and facilitate the capability to rapidly respond to scenarios that threaten the grid’s stability.

According to Siemens, their PSSCAPE software is modular, flexible and interoperable with existing applications within AEP’s T-Nexus project.

It is hoped to allow AEP to:

• Scale performance as it creates a single network model
• Run more complex protection simulations
• Streamline its NERC (North American Electric Reliability Corporation) protection and control compliance evaluation process
• Optimise day-to-day protection tasks

The PSSCAPE team will conduct training and facilitate integration with AEP Ohio systems, including asset management and outage management.

The Siemens PTI consulting team will prepare the protection model, using the full network model from the T-Nexus solution.