PowerWorld Simulator Demo — The Complete Guide: Power Grid Simulation for Learning and Evaluation
PowerWorld Simulator shows a power grid as an animated one-line diagram and runs power-system analyses on it. The demo version includes most add-ons and suits power systems courses and getting to know the software.
PowerWorld Simulator (Demo)
PowerWorld Corporation
Power flow, OPF and transient stability simulation for power grids — a demo version for education and evaluation, up to 13 buses.
Get it from the vendorWhat you get
- Power flow — voltages, flows and losses across the grid.
- Optimal power flow — OPF and SCOPF.
- Contingency analysis — what happens when an element of the grid goes out of service.
- PV and QV curves — for examining voltage stability.
- Dynamic studies — transient stability and geomagnetically induced currents.
Who may use it for free, and what is limited
The demo is licensed for educational use and evaluation only — commercial use is not allowed. It is limited to grids of up to 13 buses, so it is not suitable for analysing a real network. The download is requested through a form on the site. The full version, for grids of up to 250,000 buses, is paid.
Related tools
For analysing real grids for free in Python — pandapower. For open software with a graphical interface — VeraGrid. For power flow calculations in MATLAB or Octave — MATPOWER.
pandapower
University of Kassel and Fraunhofer IEE
Power grid analysis in Python — load flow, optimal power flow, short circuit and state estimation for distribution and transmission.
Get it from the vendorVeraGrid (formerly GridCal)
Santiago Peñate Vera and contributors
Power grid planning and simulation software with a GUI — load flow, short circuit, OPF, contingencies and dynamic simulation.
Get it from the vendorMATPOWER
MATPOWER development team
A toolbox for power flow and optimal power flow — a standard in research and teaching, and it runs in free GNU Octave.
Get it from the vendor
PyPSA
PyPSA community (TU Berlin)
Optimisation of power and energy systems — economic dispatch, capacity expansion, storage and sector coupling.
Get it from the vendorThe bottom line
The PowerWorld demo is an excellent visual teaching tool for power systems. For professional work on a real grid, choose an open tool or a full licence.