The only tool of its kind to combine analysis of both traditional steady-state and newer dynamic operations in response to extreme events, DCAT screens for weak spots on the power grid, assesses the potential impact of cascading outages on power grid elements and helps design proactive corrective actions more efficiently and effectively. It integrates models for protection schemes associated with generation, transmission, and loads, as well as automatic or manual corrective actions that could be implemented during the response to the event. DCAT can be used on laptops/desktops or in a high-performance computing environment. Under the latter, DCAT is up to 100 times faster than current analysis tools that cannot match its computing power or range of analysis. The result is a more realistic assessment of system reliability and a greater chance of stopping the domino effect of power loss that can lead to widespread issues.

The unique computational scheme prevents the overloading of software algorithms while still including orders of magnitude more scenarios and data from real extreme events. The results show system operators how the electric grid would look at any moment, so they can determine when the grid would be vulnerable to a cascading outage.

In addition, by using DCAT, system operators can comply with standards of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, an international standards organization; and those of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council, a nonprofit corporation organized to ensure a reliable bulk electric system in the geographic area covering two Canadian provinces, 14 Western states, and northern Baja, Mexico (the Western Interconnection). These standards stipulate analysis of extreme events, which only DCAT currently provides in an automated, integrated manner with recommendations to improve the resiliency of the electric grid.

DCAT has the following features:

1. It uses a hybrid dynamic and steady-state approach to simulating the cascading outage sequences that includes fast dynamic and slower steady-state events.
2.  It integrates dynamic models with protection scheme models for generation, transmission, and load.
3. It models special protection systems (SPS)/remedial action schemes (RAS) and automatic and manual corrective actions.
4. It extracts DCAT output information from multiple scenarios and multiple stages of cascading outages. Results are then loaded into MongoDB.
5. The Data Analytics module in DCAT can connect directly to data sources and combine, transform, and organize the transformation process into groups/ stages (such as voltage violations, flow violations, generation loss, load loss, RAS actions).
6. The DCAT GUI for analytics and visualization development as a stand-alone Windows application. It is based on Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) framework. This application access MongoDB and displays a list of contingencies and generates different types of plots illustrating system response for various initiating events. It also allows us to develop queries to extract necessary information from the database.
7. DCAT includes a visualization application and analyze data: Developed visualization app using WebGL and this application access MongoDB. Using WebGL allows the app to harness the computer’s graphics card and gives the visualization the ability to scale. This will allow the app to easily render large geographical regions that are densely populated. In addition, user can explore the data is the apps ability to sequentially animate over contingencies and snapshots. This ability allows the user to view changes between the various steps over time.
8. It develops HPC technique to improve simulation speed.