Distribution power flow for smart grid technologies

Smart Grid technologies hold the promise of being able to solve many of the problems currently facing in the electric power industry. However, the large scale deployment of these new technologies has been limited due to an inability to accurately model their effects or to quantify their potential benefits. GridLAB-D is a new open source power system modeling and simulation environment developed by the United States Department of Energy specifically to integrate detailed power systems and end-use models. In order to effectively model the vast array of possible smart grid technologies GridLAB-D was developed as a general simulation environment. This paper describes the basic design concept, the power flow solutions implemented, and a detailed example of the type of analysis that can be performed within the simulation environment in order to support the evaluation of smart grid technologies.