GridCal

[SanPen]

Mission Statement

GridCal aims to advance the field of electrical power systems analysis by providing an open-source, user-friendly, and comprehensive software toolset. Our mission is to empower engineers, researchers, and educators with robust, accessible, and adaptable solutions for power flow analysis, optimal power flow, short circuit analysis, and reliability assessments. We are committed to fostering innovation and collaboration through our open-source platform, enabling the development of more efficient, reliable, and sustainable power systems worldwide

Description

GridCal is a top tier power systems planning and simulation software. It is programmed in Python, has a nice Gui, can be operated as a GUI-free library and it is used by many industrial entities, most notably the Spanish TSO for planning.

Is this a new project or an existing one?

Existing since 2016

Current lead(s)

• Santiago Peñate Vera (Redeia product owner)
• Josep Fanals i Batllori (eRoots CEO)

Sponsoring organization(s), along with any other key contributing individuals and/or organizations

• Redeia through direct punctual funding: They fund internal development projects where employees and subcontractors advance the software.

• eRoots through strategic development.

Detail any existing community infrastructure, including:

• Github/GitLab, or other location where the code is hosted

• Website and/or docs

• Communication channels ( such as Mailing lists, Slack, IRC )

• Social Media Accounts

• GitHub page Issue tracking and project management as well as git

• Discord server for discussions and quick support

• Read the docs Software documentation

Are there any specific infrastructure needs or requests outside of what is provided normally by LF Energy ? If so please detail them.

I don't think so.

Why would this be a good candidate for inclusion in LF Energy?

It is a mature product well adapted for power systems planning.
It has almost all the features that are needed by utilities for planning:

• Nice GUI
• maps
• diagrams,
• many file types compatibility,
• almost all the static analysis available

The software has been tested and validated by power systems engineers of all ages(from engineers in their 20's to 65+ veterans) And the design reflect that experience: It looks simple but it is also complete.

GridCal is a poster child of what a successful open source project is: a near perfect drop-in replacement of the closed source software. This is a great chance for LFE to position itself in the red ocean of established power systems software.

How would this benefit from inclusion in LF Energy?

Greater exposure, possibly leading to a larger community of users and developers.

Provide a statement on alignment with the mission in the LF Energy charter.

I don't fully understand the practical implications of it.

What specific need does this project address?

Modern power systems planning.
Particularly, the intersection of econometric analysis (i.e macro optimization and planning) with traditional electrical engineering. In GridCal you can plan a Grid, regardless of the detail and size from start to finish. Furthermore, you can automatize all that and integrate into you process pipeline. Something that is largely manual today due to interoperability issues.

Describe how this project impacts the energy industry.

1. Proper formulations: Unlike the IT sector, the electric sector is very opaque and successful formulations are very hard to find. We have been 10+ years researching formulations and models that work now and forever. GridCal is the result of power systems archeology.

2. Leads the way: Its structure is a fruit of the aforementioned research and use. It has been almost rewritten 7 times to accommodate ever more flexible structures to be able to represent power systems effectively. It is far from the simplistic tables that are ubiquitously found in power systems software.

3. It is perhaps the first power systems software offered for free that a professional can really use for commercial work with minimal training and zero programming knowledge.

Describe how this project intersects with other LF Energy projects/working groups/special interest groups.

A good example of synergy is that PowerGridModels from the LFE is an alternative engine that can be called from GridCal. Hence this project would not really need to develop a GUI, I/O, etc...

Conceptually, it intersects with PowSyBl as well

Who are the potential benefactors of this project?

• Transmission systems operators (for planning, calculations and automation)
• Distribution systems operators (for planning, calculations and automation)
• Governments (for planning policy assessment)

What other organizations in the world should be interested in this project?

Any organization funding power systems studies for electric development in less favored places.

• World bank
• IRENA
• Lobbies for better power systems policy

Plan for growing in maturity if accepted within LF Energy

1. Marketing, marketing, marketing
2. Grow the user base
3. Establish as the planning software of more TSO's other than Redeia.
4. Grow on the private consultancy sector

Project license

• GUI: LGPL because of the Qt dependency
• Engine: LGPL
• Server: LGPL

Is the project's code available now? If so provide a link to the code location.

Yes: GitHub site

Does this project have ongoing public (or private) technical meetings?

Not at the moment as such.
The developers meet frequently, and there are periodic meetings with the stakeholders mainly from Redeia.

Does this project's community venues have a code of conduct? If so, please provide a link to it?

Not at the moment

Describe the project's leadership team and decision-making process.

Benevolent dictatorship -> the best idea moves forward.

Does this project have public governance (more than just one organization)?

Not at the moment

Does this project have a development schedule and/or release schedule?

Releases occur frequently, but are not specifically scheduled.

Does this project have dependencies on other open source projects? Which ones?

Plenty, please see them listed here.

Describe the project's documentation.

ReadTheDocs generated automatically upon push on Master (see here)

The documentation has an automatic part and a human generated set of technical notes and tutorials

Describe any trademarks associated with the project.

GridCal is a trademark in Spain

It is also a trademark in the EU by some other people who basically stole the brand in 2019.

This is perhaps the more problematic issue.

Do you have a project roadmap? If so please attach or provide a link.

On the short term:

1. Marketing: The software is quite capable of competing with commercial options: Show it to the public.
2. Participation in EU projects: The goal is funding and marketing
3. Keep on gathering requirements from users and extending the software to satisfy their current and future needs.

On the Mid term:

1. Position as a solid alternative (again Marketing)
2. Position as the leader in power systems planning from a conceptual and technical perspective (papers, conferences, etc.)

Are this project's roadmap and meeting minutes public posted?

No

Does this project have a legal entity and/or registered trademarks?

No legal entity
GridCal is a trademark in Spain

Has this project been announced or promoted in any press?

Yes, Linkedin and IEEE meetings

Does this project compete with other open source projects or commercial products?

Yes, quite some.

All open source project fail to offer a remotely close user experience and features.

The commercial product are either on the electrical side or in the econometric side, no one provides a single planning experience.