Establishing the Working Directory

• PSS ™E always operates out of a working directory. By default, this is the EXAMPLE subdirectory
under its main directory
• A simple way to administer the working directories is to create a shortcut icon for each one
• Modify the properties of the shortcut to indicate the directory in which the program is to start
STEPS
1. right click on PSSE icon  create shortcut
2. cut your shortcut in the folder when you want PSSE starts
3. copy the path of the folder where you have copied the PSSE shortcut
4. right click on PSSE icon in the new folder  properties
5. paste your folder path in the line “start in” deleting the default path present in this line
6. click on “apply” and then on “OK”.
7. Start PSSE

Changing Program Settings: line parameters

Click on the icon here selected
Change the “transmission line input” from P.U. to Ohms
Now your line parameters are in Ohms
Upload a file
Click on the icon here indicated: the mask showing the files in your folder appears
Select the file to upload:
 *.sav or file for steady-state database (or *.raw for steady state + *.seq for short circuit data)
 *.dyr or *.snp file for dynamic database (in any case, before you have to upload the steady state
database)
 *.out for uploading the output of dynamic analysis
Save a file
Click on the icon here indicated: the mask showing the files in your folder appears.
Remember: you are saving the database you are viewing in the PSSE window.
Select:
 “Case data” for saving *.sav file
 “Power flow raw data” for saving *.raw file.
 “Power flow raw data previous version” for saving *.raw file in the previous version of PSSE. In this
case, select the PSSE version for which you have to save the PSSE

If you save the *.raw file, save also *.seq data in the window “sequence data”

For defining the folder location where save the file and the name of the file, click on the button indicated with
the blue arrow.
Check stead state data
Select the appropriate sub-window to view, check and modify the different types of data
You cannot modify data in the grey column.
After important changes in the data, save the database: if the program crashes, you lose all modifications not
saved.
Solve a load flow
Click on the icon here indicated: the mask showing the files in your folder appears.
Select the options you prefer. Flag the line “show this window when using the solve toolbar button” to see the
mask every time you click the icon
Click solve to run load flow

Before solving the load flow, you can set the load flow properties from Power flow  solution  parameters
The following window appears
Power flow reports

For the limit checking report, the most useful reports are:
 Branches
 Out of limit bus voltage
Creation of a SLD
Click on the icon here indicated: select diagram in the mask that appears.

 Go to the network tree

 Expand bus folder
 Select the bus you want to draw
 Right click  draw
Connectivity check analysis
Click on the icon here indicated to put out of service the islands without slack bus before solving the load flow
(if present).
N-1 contingency analysis: creation of mon, con, sub files
1. Click on the icon here indicated to create the *.mon, *.con and *.sub files. The following mask appears
2. For subsystem file, define a subsystem name and select the subsystem for which you want to perform
the N-1 analysis. Then define the file name
3. For con and mon file, the suggestion is to use the parameters set in the mask. For these file, you have to
select the name.
4. At the end click on “go”: the three file are created in the folder selected when you defined the name

These file can be opened with a

Text editor and modified by hand
By the user.
N-1 contingency analysis: creation of dfax file
After the creation of the sub, mon and con files, click on the icon here indicated to create the *.dfax file. The
following mask appears
1. Link mon, con and sub files if not already linked
2. Select “AC analysis only” in the menu
3. Define a name for the dfax file
4. Click on OK: the dfax file has been created in the folder selected when you defined the name

The dfax file cannot be modified by hand: the only way to change the dfax file is to change the mon, con and sub
file and redo the dfax file
Note: redo the dfax file after any change in the network
N-1 contingency analysis: direct report output file
I/O control  direct report output  file: the following mask appears
Define the file name: now the output file will be directed to a file, not in the PSSE window
N-1 contingency analysis: perform the analysis
After the creation of the dfax file, click on the icon here indicated. The following mask appears
1. Link the dfax file (if not already linked)
2. Define an output file
3. Click on solve
4. When the procedure ends, click on report
N-1 contingency analysis: see the results
From the previous mask click on “solve”. The following mask appears
Select the relevant options
Click on “go”: the results will be in the output file created before
See S/S layout
 Click on the icon here indicated
 Put the number of the bus you want to show in the select bus

In alternative the line bus you want to see, right click, create bus display
Modify data
Different modes:
 Directly from the database, inserting new data from scratch or copy and paste existing elements to
duplicate them (note: the bus code must be unique, the ID of each element connected to the same node
or to the same couple of nodes must be different)
 From the layout S/S with the toolbar here indicated: insert (delete) the new elements graphically and
make the necessary topology modifications
PV analysis
 Click on the icon here indicated
 The following mask appears

Before the PV analysis you have to:

 Create sub file with two systems: source and sink
 Create the mon and con files. The suggestion is not to include all contingencies in the *.con file, but only
some selected contingencies
 Create the dfax file
 Link the dfax file in the mask of PV analysis
After that, in the PV mask:
 Select the parameters as suggested in the mask above
 Define the PV output file
 Run PV (click on “Go”)
After the PV run the results are available
QV analysis
 Click on the icon here indicated
 The following mask appears

Before the QV analysis you have to:

 Create sub file
 Create the mon and con files. The suggestion is not to include all contingencies in the *.con file, but only
some selected contingencies
 Create the dfax file
 Link the dfax file in the mask of QV analysis
After that, in the QV mask:
 Select the parameters as suggested in the mask above
 Define the QV output file
 Select the bus for which you want to perform the QV curves
 Run QV (click on “Go”)
After the QV run the results are available
Dynamic – snapshot file
 Upload the *.sav file
 Upload the *.dyr file
 Set the solution parameters
 Set the solution options
 Define the channels

Set the solution parameters: dynamic  simulation parameters

The following mask appears

The most important parameters are
 DELT: it is the integration step
 Freq filter: should be 4 times the DELT

Suggested values:
 DELT: 2 ms
 Freq filter: 8 ms

Set the solution options: dynamic  simulation options

The following mask appears

The main option is “set relative machine angle”.
 Define the channels. Two options
1. dynamic  channel setup wizard

The following mask appears

The most important channels are the ones flagged in the mask below
The channel can be registered for the whole system or for a selected subsystem (to be defined by the user)
Note: the suggestion is not to have too many registered channels in order to limit the memory requested to store
and to manage the results
 2. dynamic  define simulation output

this is for selecting precise variables to be registered.

For example, for lines, the following mask appears (the mask is for lines and transformers)

 select the line

 select the variables to be registered
 click on “go” to register the variable(s)
Save snapshot files
Click on save button of the program
Use the snapshot window
Select a file name and save

From now on you can upload the files *.sav and *.snp to perform the dynamic analysis. Directly uploading
the snapshot file you already have set the channels, properties and options for dynamic calculations
Perform dynamic analysis
Dynamic  simulation  perform simulation
The following mask appears: converts load and generation (the % here reported are the ones used for the analysis
of the Blue Nile Energy Corridor Project

Warning: after the conversion of load and generation DON’T save the network. Save the network before
converting load and generation
Note: after the conversion of load and generation you cannot any more perform a load flow calculation

After the conversion of load and generation, the following mask appears.
 Select the output file clicking on the button
 Advice: put 0 in the lines “print every”, “write every”, “plot every”
 Click on “initialize”
If initial condition check is OK, the dynamic simulation can be performed
If there are suspected initial conditions, some adjustments in the data need to be done

Define the instant up to run the simulation

Click on run to perform the simulation

Make a disturbance
Click on disturbance and select the contingency you want to simulate in dynamic
If the disturbance you select is line fault, the following mask appears
Select the line and click on “OK”

For example, to simulate the short circuit for 80 ms, go ahead with the simulation change “run to” to 1.08
seconds and click on “Run”
Then go to the “disturbance” window, clear the fault and go ahead with the simulation step by step.

Upload the results

Open the *.out file produced by the dynamic simulation from the same icon used to upload the other files
In the plot tree there is the output file (or files) uploaded with the list of the channels

If you don’t have the plot tree: view  plot tree view

Select and drag with the mouse the channel you want to see above the channel plot area. More channels can be
seen in the same graph
Right click on the graph  show editor to change the properties of the graph

Here you can:

 Modify the colour of the traces,
 Delete the traces
 Change the axis scale
 Change the title
 Change the legend
 …. many other things

To export the values in Excel: right click on the channel to export  export to Excel
Automate of the procedure
Each procedure can be made automatically with the python files (*.py). the python files can be create
automatically or manually by the user.
To create the python file automatically, the steps are the following

Start recording clicking of the icon below and define a file name, then save

Now all actions made by the user in PSSE are automatically registered in the python file
Make all events you want to register and repet automatically, for example make load flow, convert load and
generation, initialization, save output file, make simulations and disturbances, etc.
At the end stop the recording clicking on the following icon.

Now your python file has been made.

The python file can be opened in a text editor and modified by the user by hand.

Upload again the database.

To run the python file by PSSE, click on the following icon. Select the file you want to run and click on “open”.
All events stored in the python file are made automatically.

For many information about PSSE make reference to PSSE manual in the folder:

C:\Program Files (x86)\PTI\PSSE33\DOCS

 GUI: guide of PSSE

 POM: includes the description of many functions
 MODEL: there are all dynamic models
 PAGV2: you find typical values of the dynamic models (in the last part)