Nicolas Omont
Artelys, solutions for power grid optimization
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Nicolas Omont has more than 15 years of experience in Power Systems computation as an expert and a project manager. At Artelys and at RTE R&D department, he managed R&D projects to develop Power Systems tools for CIM CGMES data management, security analysis, remedial action optimization and capacity calculation. He is used to applying Artificial Intelligence techniques to Power Systems, for example to consumption forecast.
Open-Source Congestion Management: Future-Proofing Solutions for the Energy Grid
System Operators (SO) are at the forefront of the energy transition and are challenged with increasing the load in the grid. This challenge cannot be addressed by building more infrastructure alone but strategies such as the optimization of congestion management are required. However, many SOs still rely on proprietary software or manual processes that limit scalability and flexibility.
The presentation shows how open-source tools (OST) can address these problems. Through the combination of OST, solutions can be created while minimizing individual development costs by leveraging community work and building scalable solutions for congestion management. We will explore how different tools can be combined in various architectures to forge solutions, enabling efficient customization and targeted code extensions. Our focus is on effective problem-solving, unconstrained by licenses or commercial restrictions, thereby ensuring the freedom to select and deploy the optimal tool for each specific task.
Accenture and Artelys collaborate to highlight both strategic and practical insights – Accenture on solution architecture and tool combinations, Artelys on customization and integration.
Unlocking Renewables integration: Grid Modeling to assess the Impact of Grid-Enhancing Technologies
Initially developed by RTE and now also involving Artelys as main contributor, PowSyBl-Metrix is a modular, open-source power grid simulation engine which is very well suited to grid reinforcement studies. It is built for outstanding performance on sequential security-constrained DC Optimal Power Flow (OPF) computations (able to handle annual timeseries with hourly timestep), for large power systems. This session will present the tool’s architecture, key functionalities, and recent developments — including a user-friendly Windows distribution released in 2024.
One concrete application example will show how Metrix was used by Artelys to assess the impact of grid-enhancing technologies on the hosting capacity and renewable curtailment level of the grid in Latvia. By simulating multiple time horizons from 2025 to 2040, we quantified how adopting these technologies can reduce curtailment by up to two-thirds, increasing the system’s renewable hosting potential without immediate infrastructure buildout.
The session will walk through our modeling approach, key assumptions, and how scenario-based insights can inform better investment decisions and transparent policy guidance.
LFE project PowSyBl at the core of Europe’s power grid operations: the European Merging Function
Coordination of European Transmission System Operators (TSOs) through Regional Coordination Centers (RCCs) is essential to ensure operational security and increase efficiency in the world’s largest interconnected electrical grid, spanning 40+ TSOs. Two of the leading RCCs, Coreso and TSCNET, launched the CorNet program in 2021 to create a comprehensive IT platform to support all the regional coordination processes.
Several RCC processes are being implemented in this coordination platform such as: Common Grid Model (CGM), Regional Operational Security Coordination (ROSC) and Cost Sharing. Coreso and TSCNET have adopted a modular approach built on the open-source components of the LFE PowSyBl framework for the computation modules supporting these processes.
This session will present the European Merging Function (EMF) of the Common Grid Model service, which consolidates Individual Grid Models (IGMs) from all European TSOs into a unified Common Grid Model (CGM), utilizing PowSyBl Open Load Flow. Following its successful go-live in December 2024, this feature now provides consolidated network representations over multiple time horizons at Pan-European level.
Leveraging PyPowSyBl for Flow-Based Capacity Calculation processes
The integration of new interconnectors in the European transmission network requires tools that can assess their impact on cross-border electricity exchanges under realistic assumptions. As the European grid becomes increasingly interconnected and capacity calculation processes evolve towards flow-based methodologies, it is essential to understand how new projects influence the available margins for cross-zonal trade. In this workshop, we will demonstrate how PyPowSyBl, the Python interface of the PowSyBl framework, can be used for flow-based domain analysis.
Based on publicly available data, the session will start by demonstrating usual PyPowSyBl features (such as Security Analysis, visualization of Substation and Network Area diagrams) and will then focus on a practical use case of flow-based calculation.
Participants will learn how to set up, execute, and visualize these computations in PyPowSyBl, including the visualization of the resulting flow-based domain.
Towards Robust Power Flow Analysis with Noisy Data: Leveraging Nonlinear Optimization in PowSyBl
Power flow calculations play a critical role in ensuring the reliability and efficiency of power grids. However, classical methods used for AC power flow analysis often lack robustness and explainability when faced with power grid data inconsistencies, which frequently occur in operational contexts (e.g., long term AC planning).
We present a nonlinear-optimization-based approach, robust to data inconsistencies and identifying them through a penalization of the standard power flow equations. This mechanism enables both the feasibility of the equations system and the identification of inconsistencies, making the method effective regardless of the presence of data errors.
This method has been published as open-source code within the Power System Blocks (PowSyBl) library, part of the LF Energy Foundation, and dedicated to electrical grid modeling, visualization and simulation. It leverages an external nonlinear optimization solver, recently interfaced with the OpenLoadFlow module, to perform the computation. The reliability of the approach is validated on both academic and real-world networks, deliberately perturbed to introduce data errors that cause traditional approaches to fail.
Shaping the future of PowSyBl: open discussion and roadmap building
PowSyBl is an open-source framework for grid modeling, simulation and visualization, hosted by the Linux Foundation Energy since 2018. It is actively used by some Transmission System Operators (TSOs), Regional Coordination Centers (RCCs) across Europe and power system compagnies. This Birds of a Feather session will provide a unique opportunity for current users, contributors, and newcomers to connect and exchange ideas about the future of the project. Together, we will explore potential enhancements, identify new use cases and users, and work toward building a shared roadmap. Whether you are a long-time contributor or just discovering PowSyBl, your insights and questions are welcome in this open and collaborative discussion.
PowSyBl AC Optimal Power Flows
PowSyBl includes a framework to design AC Optimal Power Flows. It was used to develop Open Reac, dedicated to the voltage plan initialization needed when forecasting future grid states that are very different from historical ones, and a divergence analyzer, used to identify issues in data that prevent load flow convergence. Contrary to the other OPFs of PowSyBl (Open RAO and Metrix), these OPFs natively handle the non-linear equations of static power grid models, making them particularly suited to manage voltage constraints.
The use of a tabular format makes it easy to prototype new OPFs. The roadmap involves the development of fully open-source OPFs based on Julia JuMP.
Open source for power grids: the business model of a service provider
Generally speaking, open-source adoption requires the development of an ecosystem of IT service providers to develop, customize, support, and maintain the corresponding software.
Power grid operators are not an exception to this rule. They have additional specificities like the requirement to coordinate closely so that they exchange a massive amount of complex information and run coordinated operational processes. Through the experience of Artelys as a service provider using extensively PowSyBl, a path to a sustainable ecosystem will be sketched out.
European Remedial Action Optimizer: maximizing renewable energy exchanges
The energy transition in Europe induces an increase of the cross-border power flow in order to accommodate wind and PV generation whose production level varies in time and location throughout Europe. Investments in new transmission lines is slow and expensive. As a result, it is needed to make the most of the existing grid to increase the available transfer capacities between countries. PowSyBl Open RAO has been developed for this purpose: as a Remedial Action Optimizer, it optimizes the application of advanced grid management techniques in order to push further the safety limits of the European Power Grid. As it is computationally intensive, it is distributed on a Kubernetes cluster and uses advanced computational tools like Mixed Integer Programming. The presentation will sketch out the architecture of the tool, its main feature, and will end by showing actual use cases.
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