Towards high performance discrete-event simulations of smart electric grids

Future electric grid technology is envisioned on the notion of a smart grid in which responsive end-user devices play an integral part of the transmission and distribution control systems. Detailed simulation is often the primary choice in analyzing small network designs, and the only choice in analyzing large-scale electric network designs. Here, we identify and articulate the high-performance computing needs underlying high-resolution discrete event simulation of smart electric grid operation large network scenarios such as the entire Eastern Interconnect. We focus on the simulator's most computationally intensive operation, namely, the dynamic numerical solution for the electric grid state, for both time-integration as well as event-detection. We explore solution approaches using general-purpose dense and sparse solvers, and propose a scalable solver specialized for the sparse structures of actual electric networks. Based on experiments with an implementation in the THYME simulator, we identify performance issues and possible solution approaches for smart grid experimentation in the large.