Forward to the EPSR Special Issue for PSCC 2020

Abstract

Nearly a century before the term “smart grid” was coined, engineers relied on computations from “network analyzers” (analog computers used for power flow and stability studies) in order to design and operate electric power systems. As transmission networks became more interconnected in the early 20th century, engineers combined optimization principles with increasingly sophisticated loss models to solve the economic dispatch problems required to efficiently operate large power grids. In the 1950s and 1960s, power system computations were at the forefront of the digital computing revolution. Power system engineers played a pivotal role in the history of computing, including, among their many contributions, the first solution techniques for large-scale systems of sparse nonlinear equations. Power systems remain a key application for advancing computing methods, with engineers pushing the boundaries of knowledge in topics such as differential-algebraic equations for simulating and controlling dynamical power system models, stochastic algorithms for addressing generator and load uncertainties, nonlinear programming for optimizing power system operations, machine learning techniques for a wide range of applications, and many others. The rapid growth of computing capabilities in the 1950s and 1960s led researchers and practitioners to develop venues for sharing the latest developments in power systems computations. Among the earliest of these venues, the Power Systems Computation Conference (PSCC) has a long and distinguished history. The first PSCC was a spontaneous meeting in Mainz, Germany in 1962, with a proper conference taking place the following year in London. PSCC was subsequently held in Europe every three years until 2014, when the conference switched to a bi-annual cadence in order to accommodate the increasingly fast pace of power systems research in recent years. The 21st iteration of PSCC held in the summer of 2020 was unlike any before. During the final stages of the conference planning in March 2020, the coronavirus pandemic led to worldwide travel restrictions and lockdowns which continued through the summer. Accordingly, the 21st PSCC was held in an entirely virtual format in place of the planned meeting in Porto, Portugal. With logistical efforts led by João Peças Lopes, chair of the Local Organizing Committee at the Universidade do Porto, the 21st PSCC used a videoconferencing platform to enable the authors to present and discuss their papers with conference attendees