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PLEXOS® for Power Systems Electricity Market Simulation

PLEXOS 6

Guide for upgraders and new users

October 2010

Proprietary Information

Content

1. File Formats and Operations

2. Windowing and Dialogs

3. Editing

4. Execution

5. Input File Compare

6. Solution Viewing

7. Visualisation

8. Client Server

9. Summary

2 Proprietary Information

About this Presentation

• PLEXOS 6 is all about advancing the underlying data and user interface technologies in PLEXOS without substantially changing the simulation engine.

• The user interface in Microsoft Access is replaced with a new interface written on Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) which is part of Microsoft .NET 4. The new user interface is faster, sleeker, and allows room for substantial expansion of visualization and usability features.

• We have kept the best features of the PLEXOS 5 interface, so users familiar with PLEXOS 5 should have no trouble navigating around the new interface.

• This presentation acts as a reference for those upgrading to PLEXOS 6 but may equally be used by first-time users as a guide to some of the key user interface features.

• Please refer to the “PLEXOS 6 User Interface Guide” for a complete description of PLEXOS 6.

Proprietary Information 3

Prerequisites

• Windows editions: – Windows XP (32-bit or 64-bit edition) with SP2 or higher – Windows Vista (32 or 64-bit) – Windows 7 (32 or 64-bit)

• and: – Microsoft .NET 3.5 Framework SP1 – Microsoft .NET 4.0 Framework (x86 or x64)

• Linux editions (simulation engine only): – Any x86-based Linux distribution – Mono Version 2.6.7 or higher

• PLEXOS 6 is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit editions • In the 64-edition both interface and engine are native 64-bit • Unlike earlier versions, PLEXOS 6 does not require Microsoft

Access, although it can interact with Access and Excel



1. File Formats and Operations


XML File Format

• The input file format for PLEXOS 6 is XML, replacing the Microsoft Access MDB format. XML has many benefits in performance, robustness, and security.

• File open times: – 20MB (3 sec., 5× faster than MDB) – 50MB (8 sec. 9 × faster than MDB)

• The XML format is also integral to the client-server functions of PLEXOS Connect.

• PLEXOS 6 can read and convert MDB and also export XML back to MDB in PLEXOS 5 format, giving complete forward/backward compatibility.


Zipped XML Solution File Format

• The output file format for PLEXOS 6 is zipped-XML: literally a ZIP file containing an XML file as well as binary files. The new format is about 10 times smaller than MDB and has no size limit.

• PLEXOS 6 can still write MDB solution files if you need that format, and the interface can convert MDB to XML, but it cannot query MDB natively (it will convert MDB to zipped XML).


Text File Support

• PLEXOS 6 can open and edit CSV/TXT data files directly in the user interface without needing an external editor

• These files open as document tabs just the same as input and solution files

• You can open these files directly from their Filename or Data File reference in the property grids (right-mouse command)

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This feature is currently under going extension and enhancement to provide more editing capabilities


Drag-and-drop Open and Open Location

• You can drag-and-drop files onto the interface to open them

• This includes XML, CSV, MDB and ZIP files

• The “Open Location” command on the Window Ribbon opens Explorer in the folder containing the current file



2. Windowing and Dialogs


Docked, Floating and Tabbed Windows

• File tabs can be docked or set to floating

• This gives you complete flexibility to layout your input and solution files as you need

• Files are not locked by PLEXOS when open so you don’t need to close/reopen CSV or solution files between execution runs


Example of Docked and Floating Windows

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Floating window

Docked window group

Second docked window group


Ribbon Menu System

• All commands are available through the Ribbon menu system and the Program Button (top left)

• Commonly used commands appear on the shortcut bar • The Ribbon commands are divided into Home and Window

groups • Open files appear as tabs below the Ribbon

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Program Button contains File commands

Shortcut bar contains commonly used commands

Ribbon has Home and Window tabs

Each File is a tab


Dialog Behaviour

• Dialog boxes, such as the Generator dialog shown here open in-place rather than as pop-up modal windows

• Make sure you use the OK or Cancel buttons to close the form. The × in the top right corner closes the file!


Tree Navigation Buttons

• The forward and back navigation buttons on the quick access toolbar track your navigation actions through the main tree

• At any time you can jump back to previously selected nodes or move forward again just like navigating in a web browser

• This makes it easy to jump back and forth between two places in the tree


Memberships in Static Grid

• Memberships that are strictly one-to-one such as Line Node From and Node To are shown in the Static Property grid as extra columns before the static properties themselves

• You can create/delete/edit these memberships here


Membership Editor Improvements

• You can now copy an object and create a new membership in one action from the membership editor e.g. you might want to make a copy of a settings object like Performance after creating a new Model


Membership Viewer

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• Start Membership Viewer from right-mouse command on any Object

• Shows three levels deep into memberships • Click on any object to see the memberships

for that object • Double-click to make that object the root of

the membership view • Useful for tracing the dependencies in the

database e.g. follow a Fuel to Emissions and into Constraints


Model Dialog Enhancements

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New Execute command direct from Model bypasses the Execute dialog

Tabs show settings for each component of the Model. Bold are those associated with objects, non-bold are defaults

Non-default settings are shown with a black border

Double-click to Add or Change membership and when you return the Model dialog will reflect your changes


Configuration Enhancements

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• Configuration now performed on-the-fly

• No need to close/re-open the database!


Report Form Enhancements

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You can choose to output Sample and Statistics property-by-property, giving you much finer control of the output database size and performance. The checkboxes at the top toggle all selected properties in the column.

Synchronising report fields between phases is more powerful with AND / OR options for combining phase selections


Find, Filter and Sort Features

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Filtering now works on solution queries too!

Click the magnifying glass to access the Find feature on any tree or grid

This button implements Filter by Selection. You can toggle to Filter Excluding Selection using the double-arrow button

Click a column header to sort by that column



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3. Editing


Editing Footprints

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These lines have been edited and not yet saved

These lines have been edited and saved.

• When you make any changes in data or trees the corresponding grid shows footprints on the edited lines of data

• The footprints are black until the file is saved. They are then grey.

• The footprints only persist for the current session.


Status Bar

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Status bar reports Sum, Average, Minimum, Maximum of selected values


Data Fill Feature

• Column/Up/Down fills the value in the selected cell (any column) either up/down the entire column or just up/down

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• Selection allows you to bulk-edit columns of the selected rows e.g. you can tag a whole set of rows with a Scenario. This form also allows you to create new Scenarios, Data Files, and Timeslices on-the-fly

• Property adds the selected Property for all selected objects

This feature is currently under going extension and enhancement


Copy to Excel Improvements

• Copy to Excel now works on both input and solution databases

• When Excel is already open the button provides a dropdown of extra commands

• New Sheet drops the data into a new Worksheet in the Workbook you select

• Current Position drops the data with the top left cell at the cursor in the Worksheet you select


Copy With Headers

• Using the right-mouse button menu you can choose to copy the column headers to the clipboard or not (default depends on context)


XML via Clipboard

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• The right-mouse button Copy to Clipboard command creates the XML representation of the object on the clipboard

• You can Paste this into another database, or save the XML to a file and Import later

• You can also treat this as a template for defining your own XML files for data interchange



4. Execution


Engine

• The simulation engine in PLEXOS 6 is the same as that used in PLEXOS 5.2x

• If you have been using PLEXOS 5.2x then you’ve been using the PLEXOS 6 simulation engine (probably without knowing it )

• This way you can upgrade to PLEXOS 6 knowing that your simulation results are unchanged

• In PLEXOS 5 the engine converted your MDB input file to XML behind-the-scenes and used a compatibility layer to write MDB output

• In PLEXOS 6 the same engine now runs ‘natively’ with XML throughout


Execute in Parallel Feature

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• New Execute in Parallel option allows you to run multiple Models/Projects simultaneously

• This is perfect for computers with multiple cores and large amounts of RAM

• The control for number of jobs run in parallel is in PLEXOS Settings

NOTE: You need enough licences to run the selected number of jobs in parallel!



5. Input File Compare


Input file Compare

• The new compare functionality allows you to: – See all the changes you have

made in the current session; or

– load two input databases side-by-side and examine any differences between them.

• It also allows you to merge changes from one database to the other.

• It is particularly useful when used in conjunction with the PLEXOS Connect client-server.

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The Comparison Tool is launched for the current session using the Changes command on the Home Ribbon, or via the Program Button Menu for comparing two files on disk.


Compare Commands

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Reload – to reload selected input files

Previous/Next arrows– to navigate from one difference to the next

Sub-tree Right/ Sub-tree Left – to merge all sub-items of a selected tree from one database to the other

Item Right/Item Left - to merge a selected item from one database into the other


Examining the differences

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• The compare tool is very useful to identify if new objects have been added or data has been modified, inserted or deleted.

• Toolbar commands allow merging of changes between the files • This tool links with the PLEXOS Connect client-server to aid in version

management

The green-green highlighting indicates deletions and insertions.

The light-blue highlighting indicates a difference.

This example shows that in the database on the right the objects Reserves and Zones have been added and Power Stations have been removed.


Compare and Merge

• The yellow icons indicate that properties have been added in the database on the right, e.g. [Start Cost] and [Run Up Rate].

• Select the property that you wish to add to the database on the left and click “Item Left”.



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6. Solution Viewing


Updated Solution View Layout

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Log File shown as tab. Log is searchable using Find tool

Tree and query parameters all sit on one panel together. This panel can be hidden/shown at will allowing you to use the entire screen space for results (Window ribbon tab)

This is the new query Execute button


Solution Data and Chart tabs

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• Query results are shown in tabs (at bottom)

• Each tab contains two tabbed pages: one for the data and one for the chart

• Charts can by copied to the clipboard


Chart Enhancements


1. Area and other stack-type charts automatically order the series with the most ‘constant’ series on the bottom, most ‘variable’ at the top. Toggle this ordering on/off using the “Smart Stack” toolbar button the Chart ribbon

2. Charts can be copied to the clipboard using the Copy command from the main ribbon

Pinning Result Tabs

• Use the Pin button on a tab to pin (keep) the result tab (data and chart)

• Double-click to name the tab

• You can create as many tabs as you like


Re-executing Results

• In PLEXOS 6 the solution ZIP file is not locking for writing when it is open in the interface

• If you rerun your simulation again you can leave the solution view open

• PLEXOS detects that the solution file has changed next time you select the tab

• You are given the option to either open the changed solution in a new file tab, or to re-execute all result tabs i.e. you don’t have to redo all the queries again!


Solution Query History

• The History (on the Window tab of the Ribbon) keeps a record of queries you have run

• You can re-execute any query by selecting the query off the History list

• This allows you to easily apply a recently executed query to another solution file


Solution View Gallery

• The solution gallery (Window tab of ribbon) allows you to save your current layout of tabbed results and give it a name

• At any time you can Apply that view to a solution file and all the saved result tabs will be run and pinned for you

• The Parameters toggle button shows/hides the query parameters and tree panel

• In combination then you can create a complete report layout and apply it over-and-over without referencing the query parameters, and use the entire screen for viewing the results

• Remember you can also Filter any queried result using the new Filter tool


Solution File Compare

• The Solution Comparison tool allows you to compare the result queries from two different solution files.

• The differences are displayed in a data table and can also be charted.

• Multiple Compare windows can be tabbed, whereby each window has its own reference to the result sets being compared.

• The Compare commands are accessible through the Window ribbon.


Running a Comparison

1. Open two solution files that you wish to compare.

2. For each solution db, first perform the relevant query and then click the + button to add the file to the comparison.

3. Click the Compare button to start the comparison.

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Open Solution database and execute query.

Add the selected solution file to the Comparison.

Start the comparison.


Comparing the Results

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• The differences can be viewed in the data table and are highlighted in different colours.

• The comparison can also be charted.

The Match Fields functions give the user additional controls in highlighting the result differences.



7. Visualisation


Export to External Viewers

• PLEXOS 6 can export your system to either GML or KML format which can be read by a number of third-party tools such as Google Earth

• The Visualization command on the Program button provides options for the export and can automatically launch Google Earth to view the exported file

• This feature is particularly useful for visualising your transmission network (no matter what size) and help you find errors in the network definition or identify areas of congestion

• See the Help for more details • NOTE: This feature is being expanded upon all the time,

so check the latest release notes for details!


PLEXOS Network in Google Earth


KML versus GML

• KML is for use in Google Earth

• It requires you to enter Longitude and Latitude attributes on the Node objects before exporting

• If you have a database with no such information you can export to GML format instead and use a generic viewer like Cytoscape to layout the network in one of its generic formats

• This gives you the ability to view the network without entering all the location information

• Later on you can obtain the Longitude and Latitude from Google Earth and paste into PLEXOS


PLEXOS Network in Cytoscape

• Cytoscape is open-source

• The layout shown in under Layout/y-files/Organic

• You can zoom, scroll and search in this program



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8. Client Server


What is PLEXOS Connect?

• PLEXOS Connect is a distributed application where multiple users can simultaneously manage data, queue up PLEXOS jobs for execution and review the results produced

• It works with, and extends, PLEXOS 6 user interface and simulator to create a client-server and distributed computing capability for power system simulation


Architecture at a Glance

Front-ends

Back-ends

Launch Control PLEXOS 6

GUI

Simulation Clients (64-bit)

Simulation Clients (32-bit)


Architecture

• Centralized architecture – Client-Server architecture

• Main components of PLEXOS Connect are:

- Back-ends:

- PLEXOS Connect Server

- PLEXOS Connect Clients

- Front-ends:

- Launch Controls

- PLEXOS GUI Applications


Workflow

Create Dataset

• Name dataset • Upload files • Name Version • Provide

Description

Configure Job

• Name job • Assign versions • Configure

parameters • Assign

client/group • Prioritise

Review Results

• View/Compare summary

• Comments • Download

results set


Workflow, Continued

• Users input data using Launch Control or the PLEXOS GUI by: – creating a Dataset – uploading a PLEXOS input xml file and other associated data files (e.g. CSV) – giving a version name and a description

• Future modification of the files can be branched as a new version • NOTE: Datasets can be checked-out to prevent other users from making

modifications to the dataset • Once datasets are available (published by the owner), users configure a Job by:

– adding the versions of interest – selecting the parameters to specify the models/projects to run – assign specific clients or a client group that are allowed to execute the job

• The jobs can be prioritised so that the higher priority jobs get executed first. Configured jobs can be added into queues that will be dispatched to be executed on the PLEXOS Connect Clients.

• After jobs have been executed, users can: – quickly review the results with a summary report – comments on the run – download the whole result set for detailed viewing in PLEXOS GUI.


Features

• Multi-users support

– Allow Collaboration. (Keeps record of who published a version of the input data)

– Support roles with rights

Roles Rights

Admin User management and all below

Editor Data management and all below

Executor Job management and all below

None Review results


Features, Continued

• Distributed Computing – Jobs are be queued for parallel execution across multiple

PLEXOS Connect Clients – Prioritisation of job executions – Jobs to be assign to specified group of computers – Multi-processor/core computers can run multiple jobs

simultaneously

• Centralised Version Management: – Client components can update using ClickOnce from the Server – The only software needed on the Client computer is the PLEXOS

Connect Client software: you do not need to install PLEXOS or the simulation engine

– Versions of the PLEXOS simulation engine are managed by the server, allowing you to execute using a previous version of the engine, and input, at any time


Features, Continued

• Consolidated data storage: – Allow naming of input data

– Descriptions can be attached to the data

– Data are version controlled

– Data can be branched from any previous version

– Data can be checked out to prevent modification from other users

• Secure: – The server and user accounts are password protected

– Data storage and communications are encrypted

– The security can be further enhanced by creating a custom identity file: only clients and users with the custom identity file can connect to the server


PLEXOS Connect Launch Control

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Summary of remote run allows you to quickly check results

List of runs related to selected Dataset

Each Dataset is a complete system model defined by XML and CSV/TXT files Inside each Dataset there are the versions of the Dataset


PLEXOS Connect Launch Control

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Jobsets are collections of simulation runs (Jobs)

Each Job is defined by the Dataset and Version it is running and the Version of the Engine it will run with.


PLEXOS Connect Clients

• The Clients tab lists all the computers on the network that are registered with this Server as execution clients

• The green arrow indicates the client is running a Job

• Clients can register more than once, meaning they will be able to run multiple jobs at a time

• Clients can be paused (suspended) temporarily

• You can create Client Groups like “x64” and assign certain Jobs only to that group


PLEXOS Connect Engines

• Versions of the simulation Engine are uploaded to the Server

• These ZIP files contain all the files needed to run the Engine

• Jobs are assigned a version of the Engine or simply “Latest”

• For every run the Client downloads the required Engine as well as input files

• This means the client need not have PLEXOS installed, only the Client

• It also means you can, at any time, run a Job using any previous version of your input combined with any version of the Engine giving complete reproducibility of known results

• You can download Engine ZIPs from the same place you obtain PLEXOS


PLEXOS 6 and Connect Integration

• When Launch Control is installed PLEXOS 6 shows the Connect menu, which allows you to send your input data to the server either as a new Dataset or new version of an existing Dataset

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• From Launch Control itself and with PLEXOS 6 open you can: – Open any Dataset (and version) in PLEXOS 6 for editing

– Open any Solution stored on the server in PLEXOS 6 as if it were a local solution file

– The Solution file remains on the server and only query results are passed from the server to PLEXOS 6



9. Summary


Summary and Experiences

• PLEXOS 6 provides a complete technology update for the graphical user interface, while maintaining consistency of the simulation engine and results

• Use this presentation as a guide to all the new features

• After a short familiarisation period you will find that in PLEXOS 6 you: – Are able to create and modify data much more efficiently

– Have a lot more files open at once without memory or reliability issues

– Use the Solution History/Gallery/Re-execute queries a lot

• Adding PLEXOS Connect allows you to keep track of versions of input data and run many more simulations, and make use of spare CPU time on networked computers


Tips and Known Quirks

1. When a grid cell is in “edit” mode the arrow keys do not navigate to the next cell. Just press Enter to finish the edit operation.

2. When you select a dynamic property in the Property Tree, the grid defaults to that property for new records, even though the new record looks blank until you start typing or pasting into it.

3. On a new record the first character typed into a combo box like Property only invokes edit mode, you can start typing to the property name as usual. This is handled more elegantly on existing rows.

4. When using the Select All button on the grids, if you find that the interface is not recognising your selection when you go to take another action such as a paste, try first clicking one cell in the grid, then Select All button.

5. There are some known minor issues with the third party windowing controls used in PLEXOS 6 e.g. the Solution Gallery sometimes needs to be dropped down to show the list of saved views and the Close All command on the tabs is a bit unreliable. These problems will be resolved in an update later in 2010 or early 2011 when these controls are upgraded.

6. There is currently no Undo feature in the grid editing. This will be added later. Every time you save a backup is made. And if you get lost with what edits you have done you can always use the File Compare to see how you have changed the data since your last version.

7. PLEXOS 6 provides a COM library that works the same as the PLEXOS 5 version, but currently there is no ODBC support so you can’t do custom queries to the solution ZIP files yet (ODBC driver coming soon though).

as at October 2010


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