Getting Started in Simulation of Power Networks

See also ATPDesigner is a graphical pre-processor to the ATP (Alternative Transients Program) version of the Electromagnetic Transients Program (EMTP) executed on Windows operating systems. AtpDesigner supports the user - to Design very easy electrical power networks, - to create Diagrams of voltages and currents, - to analyse voltages and currents using Discrete Fourier Transformation (DFT) e.g. harmonic analysis Currents and voltages which are of interest shall be calculated using ATP. The interaction between ATPDesigner and ATP presented in How ATPDesigner incorporates ATP ? will be explained below more in detail.

Step 1: Design of the Power Network The user should open a new power network using the New button of the Main Toolbar or using the corresponding menu item New in the File menu. ATPDesigner creates the Default Network shown in the figure below. The user can now add, change, move or delete network elements e.g. Network Infeeds or supporting elements e.g. text frames. Several network elements e.g. lines, transformers, etc. are available to design an electrical power network. The network elements can be selected via the menu Power Network or the corresponding buttons in the Network Design Toolbar. New network elements can be added by the drag & drop technology usual for windows programs: > First pressing the corresponding toolbar button, > then moving the new network element to the target location, > if necessary connecting a node of an other network element and > changing settings in the network element specific setting dialog. Read the List of Available Network Elements Changing Settings of Network Elements The settings of each network element can be read and changed via network element specific dialogs. (1) First the network element should be selected via "a mouse click" on top of the network element. The selected network element will be then drawn in light gray. (2) The dialog, which is specificly designed for each power network element, can be opened now via "a double mouse click". All these dialogs are explained in the menu chapter Network Elements for Power Systems of this help file. Please check also the How to ... section in the menu Network Design Mode of this help file. See more about ATPDesigner and Simulation of Power Networks See more about the available Network Elementes See more about How to Add a New Network Element

.NET - File The .NET - File contains all data which of the electrical power network: - Data to describe the graphical representation of all network elements used in the power network - Electrical and mechanical data to define the physical behaviour of all network elements used in the power network The name of the .NET - File is displayed in the header of the corresponding client window e.g. C:\ATP\Exe\Network_3.net shown in the figure above. Please Note It is absolutely sufficient to save only the .NET - File. All other data files can be reestablished

via ATPDesigner based on the corresponding .NET - File. The data stored in the .NET - File will be secured using a Checksum Algorithm. The user should NOT change any data in the .NET - File by hand e.g. using a text editor, because the .NET - File will corrupted. ATPDesigner doesn't accept .NET - Files with corrupted checksum. In this case ATPDesigner presents the error message shown below and reloades the default values. All information contained in the corrupted .NET - File are now lost.

Integrated File Browser ATPDesigner supports the user managing the different file types via the integrated File Browser. Nevertheless the standardised functions of Windows based software e.g. New, Open, Save, Save As .., Print, etc. are also available either in the menu File, using the buttons of the Main Toolbar or the standardised Hotkeys. Main Menu The main menu and all sub menus are explained in detail in the section Main Menu of this help file. Program Settings Several settings which are ATPDesigner specific and independent of the power network data will be saved in the .INI - File and not in the .NET - File. ATPDesigner writes the .INI - File during startup if the .INI - File is not existing. See more about the Content of the .INI - File

Step 2: Start ATP to Calculate Voltages and Currents The network simulation can be easily started only pressing the button. ATPDesigner writes the .ATP - File and starts ATP in the background. ATP calculates voltages and currents and writes the results into two output files: the .LST - file, which contains - a copy of all commands of the .ATP - File, - additional comments and error messages written during the runtime of ATP (American EMTP User Group, References) and - optionally the results of the Short Circuit Analysis of the power network, and the .PL4 - File, which contains the calculated voltages and currents as sampled values e.g. to create Diagrams.

See more about Files and File Extensions

Step 3: Loading .PL4 - or COMTRADE - File to Create Signal Diagrams and to Start the Signal Analysis .PL4 - File or COMTRADE - Files can be displayed using an External Diagram Viewer e.g. PlotXY, which is part of the ATP installation setup or using the internal Diagram Viewer of ATPDesigner. The External Diagram Viewer can be started via the button or in parallel to ATDesigner as a second task of the operating system. The .PL4 - File can be also converted automatically to the COMTRADE standard IEC 60255-24 and can be presented using any external COMTRADE viewer. The Internal Diagram Viewer will be automatically started if a .PL4 - File or a COMTRADE - File has been loaded e.g. via a double-click on the file name in the File Browser .

The most easy way to open a .PL4 - File and to create a diagram ... The .PL4 - File can be also opened via the Right Mouse Button Menu. If the the power network graphics is displayed in the topmost view of ATPDesigner, click the Right Mouse Button and select the menu item Open Diagram (.PL4 - File) ... The .PL4 - File which corresponds to the visible power network graphics will be loaded and first the Dialog to Select the Signals to Display will be presented. See more How to Open a Diagram The figure below shows as an example the graphics of the power network and the corresponding diagram using the internal diagram viewer in two client windows. Configuration of External Viewers The configuration of external viewers is explained in the chapters Viewer for Voltages and Currents and Program Settings.

ATPDesigner supports the user with several Context Sensitive Right Mouse Button Menus depending on the type the topmost view (e.g. power network graphics or diagram) and depending on the position of the mouse cursor (e.g. located "over" a network element or not). See more about Context Sensitive Right Mouse Button Menu for Power Network Graphics See more about Context Sensitive Right Mouse Button Menu for Diagrams

Signals Analysis Methods ATPDesigner supports also the analysis of voltages and currents which are stored into the .PL4 - File. The signal analysis methods are based on the Discrete Fourier Transformation, which calculates the

frequency spectrum of voltages and currents. The two next figures below show two different analysis results. See more about Signal Analysis Algorithms See more about How to Present the Signals Analysis Results

DFT (f) Amount and phase angle of the fundamental frequency e.g. 50 Hz or 60 Hz from all voltages and currents which are drawn into the corresponding Diagram

Harmonics Amount and phase of the fundamental frequency and all other harmonics from one signal, which had been first selected The user had selected the node names TACS - IAP_M1 which represents the primary current in phase A. The node name can be selected by clicking with the left mouse button.

ATPDesigner calculates the frequency spectrum using the Discrete Fourier Algorithm (DFT). The result will be displayed in the list shown below.

In addition the results of the frequency analysis can be also presented in a Vector Diagram in the figure below.

shown

Nevertheless the vector diagram makes only sense if it's created for one frequency component only. If the complete frequency spectrum shall be presented, it is usual to create a line diagram showing the amount of the vectors of all frequency components.