PNNL

Abstract

Serial Windows-based programs are widely used in power utilities. For applications that require high volume simulations, the single CPU runtime can be on the order of days or weeks. The lengthy runtime, along with the availability of low cost hardware, is leading utilities to seriously consider High Performance Computing (HPC) techniques. However, the vast majority of the HPC computers are still Linux-based and many HPC applications have been custom developed external to the core simulation engine without consideration for ease of use. This has created a technical gap for applying HPC-based tools to today’s power grid studies. To fill this gap and accelerate the acceptance and adoption of HPC for power grid applications, this paper presents a prototype of generic HPC platform for running Windows-based power grid programs on Linux-based HPC environment. The preliminary results show that the runtime can be reduced from weeks to hours to improve work efficiency.