Quoted from: http://www.pandapower.org/about/#modeling
pandapower builds on the data analysis library pandas and the power system analysis toolbox PYPOWER to create an easy to use network calculation program aimed at automation of analysis and optimization in power systems. What started as a convenience wrapper around PYPOWER has evolved into a stand-alone power systems analysis toolbox with extensive power system model library, an improved power flow solver and many other power systems analysis functions.
Motivation
pandapower was developed to close the gap between commercial and open source power systems analysis tools. While open source power systems tools are flexible and can easily be customized, they often lack the detailed model libraries and comfortable usage of commercial power system analysis tools.
|
Electric Models |
Automation |
Customization |
Commercial Tools (e.g. Sincal, PowerFactory, NEPLAN) |
Thoroughly validated and easy to parametrize electric models of lines, transformers, switches etc. |
Graphical User Interface applications that are difficult to automate. |
Restricted possibilities for customization due to proprietary code base. |
Open Source Tools (e.g. MATPOWER, PYPOWER) |
Basic models that require parametrization by the user with expert knowledge. |
Console application that are designed for automated evaluations. |
Open Source code base that can be freely modified and customized. |
pandapower |
Thoroughly validated and easy to parametrize electric models of lines, transformers, switches etc. |
Console application that is designed for automated evaluations. |
Open source code base that can be freely modified and customized. |
This is of course a very broad classification of tools that is only supposed to illustrate the focus of pandapower without considering the diverse landscape of existing tools. A more detailed analysis of existing open source tools and the gap that pandapower closes can be found in [1]. Overviews over existing open source tools can also be found in [2] or [3] .
Scope
pandapower is aimed at static analysis of balanced power systems. This allows analysis of:
- transmission and subtransmission systems, which are typically operated symmetrically.
- symmetric distribution systems, which are commonly found in Europe.
Distribution grids with unbalanced power flows, such as the feeder design common in North America, can currently not be analysed with pandapower.