Computational challenges and analysis under increasingly dynamic and uncertain electric power system conditions

Computational methods and information systems have been at the center of secure and economic planning and operation of electric power systems for several decades. Today, transformational forces such as renewable energy, distributed resources, energy storage, massive sensing, etc., pose numerous and much more difficult computational challenges. The addition of sustainability objectives to the traditional goals of grid economy and reliability has resulted in growing uncertainty and complexity, and is likely to rend a significant portion of the current computational methods and information systems obsolete. The new decision-making tools needed in operations and planning must be based on computational methods that account for uncertain conditions and are capable of handling much more complex problems. On the other hand, the availability of massive, more detailed, and new data from PMU, AMI, and IED´s provides great opportunities for improved grid planning and operations, but ways must be found to aggregate, organize, and keep this data secure so that it can be leveraged to upgrade, extend, and replace existing tool.