H.12 Version 7.0 – released Jun 20, 2019

The Matpower 7.0 User’s Manual is available online.⁸⁹

New Features

• New Matpower installer script install_matpower() automatically updates Matlab or Octave paths or optionally provides the commands required to so.
• Support for additional user-defined general nonlinear constraints and costs in AC OPF.
• Support for exporting Matpower case to PSS/E RAW data format.
• Three new variants of the standard Newton AC power flow, for a total of four, including both nodal power and current balance constraints and both polar and cartesian representations of voltage. See the new pf.current_balance and pf.v_cartesian options. Thanks to Baljinnyam Sereeter.
• Three new variants of the standard AC OPF formulation, for a total of four, including both nodal power and current balance constraints and both polar and cartesian representations of voltage. See the new opf.current_balance and opf.v_cartesian options. Thanks to Baljinnyam Sereeter.
• Three new power flow algorithms for radial distribution systems selected via the three new options for pf.alg, namely 'PQSUM', 'ISUM', 'YSUM'. Also includes new Matpower options pf.radial.max_it and pf.radial.vcorr. See Section 4.3 on “Distribution Power Flow” for details. Thanks to Mirko Todorovski.
• Major upgrade to OPF soft limit functionality, supporting soft limits on all AC and DC OPF inequality constraints, including branch flow constraints, bus voltage bounds, generator active and reactive bounds, branch flow and branch angle difference limits. Thanks to Eran Schweitzer.
• Docker image tagged matpower/matpower-desktop, providing a pre-packaged Ubuntu desktop environment with Octave, Matpower, and the Matpower Extras all pre-installed. See the docker/MATPOWER-Docker.md page for more details. Thanks to Richard Lincoln.
• New options:
  • pf.nr.lin_solver controls the linear solver used to compute the Newton update step in the Newton-Raphson power flow.
  • pf.radial.max_it and pf.radial.vcorr are options for the new radial power flow algorithms. Thanks to Mirko Todorovski.
  • cpf.enforce_flow_lims and cpf.enforce_v_lims control enforcement of branch flow and bus voltage magnitude limits in the continuation power flow and cpf.flow_lims_tol and cpf.v_lims_tol control the respective detection tolerances. Thanks to Ahmad Sadiq Abubakar and Shrirang Abhyankar.
  • pf.current_balance and pf.v_cartesian control formulation used for Newton AC power flow. Thanks to Baljinnyam Sereeter.
  • opf.current_balance and opf.v_cartesian control formulation used for AC OPF. Thanks to Baljinnyam Sereeter.
  • opf.softlims.default determines whether or not to include soft limits on constraints whose parameters are not specified explicitly in the mpc.softlims struct. For use with enhanced toggle_softlims() functionality. Thanks to Eran Schweitzer.
  • opf.start replaces deprecated opf.init_from_mpc and adds a new possibility to automatically run a power flow to initialize the starting state for the OPF.
• New functions:
  • calc_branch_angle calcultes voltage angle differences for branches.
  • dImis_dV() evaluates the partial derivatives of nodal current balance with respect to bus voltages.
  • d2Imis_dV2() evaluates the 2^nd derivatives of nodal current balance with respect to bus voltages.
  • d2Imis_dVdSg() evaluates the 2^nd derivatives of nodal current balance with respect to bus voltages and generator injections.
  • d2Abr_dV2() evaluates the 2^nd derivatives of squared branch flows with respect to bus voltages.
  • gentypes() and genfuels provide list of standard generator unit types and fuel types, respectively.
  • install_matpower() installs Matpower by automatically modifying or, alternatively, showing needed modifications to Matlab or Octave path.
  • loadshed() computes MW curtailments of dispatchable loads.
  • opf_branch_ang_fcn() evaluates AC branch flow limit constraints and gradients.
  • opf_branch_ang_hess() evaluates Hessian of AC branch flow limit constraints.
  • opf_current_balance_fcn() evaluates AC current balance constraints and gradients.
  • opf_current_balance_hess() evaluates Hessian of AC current balance constraints.
  • opf_veq_fcn() evaluates voltage magnitude equality constraints and gradients.
  • opf_veq_hess() evaluates Hessian of voltage magnitude equality constraints.
  • opf_vlim_fcn() evaluates voltage magnitude limit constraints and gradients.
  • opf_vlim_hess() evaluates Hessian of voltage magnitude limit constraints.
  • opf_vref_fcn() evaluates reference voltage angle equality constraints and gradients.
  • opf_vref_hess() evaluates Hessian of reference voltage angle equality constraints.
  • opt_model/add_lin_constraint() to add linear constraints to an optimization model.
  • opt_model/add_nln_constraint() to add nonlinear constraints to an optimization model.
  • opt_model/init_indexed_name() to initialize the indices for an indexed name set of constraints, costs or variables.
  • save2psse() to export a Matpower case to PSS/E RAW data format.
  • savechgtab() to save change tables, such as those used by apply_changes, to a file.

New Case Files

• Seven new purely synthetic cases from the ACTIVSg team (ASU, Cornell, Texas A&M, U of Illinois, and VCU - Synthetic grids), resulting from work supported by the ARPA-E GRID DATA program. Thanks to Adam Birchfield and the ACTIVSg team.
  • case_ACTIVSg200 – 200-bus Illinois synthetic model
  • case_ACTIVSg500 – 500-bus South Carolina synthetic model
  • case_ACTIVSg2000 – 2000-bus Texas synthetic model
  • case_ACTIVSg10k – 10,000-bus US WECC synthetic model
  • case_ACTIVSg25k – 25,000-bus US Northeast/Mid-Atlantic synthetic model
  • case_ACTIVSg70k – 70,000-bus Eastern US synthetic model
  • case_SyntheticUSA – 82,000-bus continental USA synthetic model (aggregation of case_ACTIVSg70k, case_ACTIVSg10k, and case_ACTIVSg2000, connected by 9 DC lines)

  Some of these cases also include contingency tables and/or hourly load scenarios for 1 year.

  • contab_ACTIVSg200
  • contab_ACTIVSg500
  • contab_ACTIVSg2000
  • contab_ACTIVSg10k
  • scenarios_ACTIVSg200
  • scenarios_ACTIVSg2000
• New RTS-GMLC case from https://github.com/GridMod/RTS-GMLC.
  • case4_RTS_GMLC
• Six new radial distribution system cases. Thanks to Mirko Todorovski.
  • case4_dist
  • case18
  • case22
  • case69
  • case85
  • case141

New Documentation

• Two new Tech Notes, available from Matpower home page.
  • Matpower Technical Note 3 “Addendum to AC Power Flows and their Derivatives using Complex Matrix Notation: Nodal Current Balance” [39]
  • Matpower Technical Note 4 “AC Power Flows and their Derivatives using Complex Matrix Notation and Cartesian Coordinate Voltages” [40]
• LATEX source code for Matpower User’s Manual included in docs/src, for MIPS User’s Manual in mips/docs/src and for MOST User’s Manual in most/docs/src.

New Website

• Matpower has a new website at https://matpower.org. Please discontinue use of the old http://www.pserc.cornell.edu/matpower/ address.

Other Improvements

• Update versions of included packages:
  • MIPS 1.3.1.
  • MOST 1.0.2.
  • MP-Test 7.0.
• Continuous integration testing via GitHub and Travis-CI integration.
• Support added in core optimization model opt_model for:
  • general nonlinear constraints
  • general nonlinear costs
  • quadratic costs
• Refactor OPF code to take advantage of new opt_model capabilities for nonlinear constraints and quadratic and nonlinear costs.
• Derivative functions now support cartesian coordinates for voltage in addition to polar coordinates.
• In the Newton power flow, for larger systems use explicit LU decomposition with AMD reordering and the 3 output argument form of lu (to select the Gilbert-Peierls algorithm), resulting in up to a 2x speedup in Matlab, 1.1x in Octave. Thanks to Jose Luis Marín.
• Improve performance of makeYbus(). Thanks to Binbin Chen.
• Support plotting of multiple nose curves in CPF by allowing option cpf.plot.bus to take on vector values.
• Add line for curtailed load to case_info() output.
• Change default implementation of active power line flow constraints (opf.flow_lim = 'P') to use flow directly, rather than square of flow, which is now a separate option, namely opf.flow_lim = '2'. Thanks to Nico Meyer-Huebner.
• Add genfuels and gentypes to establish standard set of values for optional mpc.genfuel and mpc.gentype fields for generator fuel type and generator unit type, respectively.
• Add support for gentype and genfuel fields of Matpower case struct in extract_islands, ext2int, int2ext, load2disp and savecase.
• Add support for bus_name field of Matpower case struct to extract_islands, ext2int and int2ext.
• Add support for Ipopt solver under Octave, including in the Travis-CI testing. Thanks to Richard Lincoln.
• Add support for YALMIP, SeDuMi and SDPT3 to be recognized under Octave. Thanks to Richard Lincoln.
• Add 'clear_cache' options to have_fcn() (see issue #65) to facilitate re-checking for optional functionality after changes to the MATLAB/Octave path.
• Deprecated functions:
  • d2AIbr_dV2() – use dA2br_dV2() instead.
  • d2ASbr_dV2() – use dA2br_dV2() instead.
  • opt_model/add_constraints() – use the corresponding one of the following methods instead: add_lin_constraint(), add_nln_constraint(), or init_indexed_name().
  • opt_model/add_costs() – use the corresponding one of the following methods instead: add_quad_cost(), add_nln_cost(), add_legacy_cost(), or
    init_indexed_name().
  • opt_model/linear_constraints() – use opt_model/params_lin_constraint() instead.
  • opt_model/build_cost_params() – no longer needed, incorporated into
    opt_model/params_legacy_cost().
  • opt_model/get_cost_params() – use opt_model/params_legacy_cost() instead.

Bugs Fixed

• Fix bug in conversion of older versions of Matpower options.
• Fix bug #4 where some Q limits were not being respected by CPF when buses were converted to PQ by initial power flow run. Thanks to Shruti Rao.
• Fix fatal bug #8 when calling runcpf with base and target cases with identical load and generation. Thanks to Felix.
• Fix fatal bug in get_losses when computing derivatives of reactive branch injections and fix some related tests.
• Fix #11 fatal error encountered when running test_matpower with SDP_PF and YALMIP installed, but no SDP solver. Now checks for availability of SeDuMi, SDP3 or MOSEK before attempting to run SDP_PF tests that require solving an SDP. Thanks to Felix.
• Fix bug #12 where the CPF could terminate early when requesting trace of the full curve with P or Q limits enforced, if a limit becomes binding at the base case. Thanks to Felix.
• Fix bug #13 where setting all buses to type NONE (isolated) resulted in a fatal error for ext2int, runpf, runcpf and runopf. Thanks to SNPerkin.
• Fix bug #21 where a continuation power flow that failed the first corrector step would produce a fatal error. Thanks to Elis Nycander.
• Fix bug #23 where the continuation power flow could switch directions unexpectedly when the operating point switched from stable to unstable manifold or vice-versa after hitting a limit. Thanks to Elis Nycander and Shrirang Abhyankar.
• Fix bug #26 where, in a continuation power flow, a reactive limit at a bus could be detected in error if multiple generators at the bus had reactive ranges of very different sizes. Thanks to Elis Nycander and Shrirang Abhyankar.
• Fix runpf handling of case where individual power flow fails during Q limit enforcement.
• Fix bug #53 where certain OPF cases (e.g. case33bw) resulted in a fatal error under versions of Matlab prior to R2016b (v9.1). Thanks to Jane Cheung.
• Fix bug #56 where save2psse was missing entries for two transformer columns, namely, VMA1 and VMI1. Thanks to Amin Gholami.
• Fix bug #57 where save2psse always used 1 for the CKT number, even for parallel branches or transformers. Thanks to Amin Gholami.
• Fix bug in have_fcn() where it would incorrectly mark Gurobi as available even if it had an expired license or failed for some other reason.
• Fix issue #60 by adding missing generator at slack bus in RTE cases. Affects the following cases:
  • case1888rte
  • case1951rte
  • case2848rte
  • case2868rte
  • case6468rte
  • case6470rte
  • case6495rte
  • case6515rte

  Thanks to Jean Maeght.

Incompatible Changes

• Move included Matpower case files to new data subdirectory.
• Turning soft limits on without specifying any parameters explicitly in mpc.softlims now implements soft limits for all constraints, by default, not just branch flow limits. And the format of the input parameters in mpc.softlims has changed. See help toggle_softlims or Tables 7-9, 7-10 and 7-11 for the details.
• Swap the order of the output arguments of dSbus_dV()) for polar coordinate voltages (angle before magnitude) for consistency.
• Correct signs of phase shifter angles in Polish system cases, since they were based on the old sign convention used by Matpower prior to v3.2 (see change on 6/21/07). Affects the following cases:
  • case2383wp
  • case2736sp
  • case2737sop
  • case2746wop
  • case2746wp
  • case3375wp

  Thanks to Mikhail Khokhlov and Dr. Artjoms Obusevs for reporting.

• Remove nln.mu.l.<name> and nln.mu.u.<name> fields from OPF results struct. Use nle.lambda.<name> and nli.mu.<name> fields instead for nonlinear constraint multipliers.
• Modify order of default output arguments of opt_model/get_idx().
• Add mpopt to input args for OPF 'ext2int', 'formulation', and 'int2ext' callbacks.
• Eliminate unnecessary reordering of on-line generators (sorted by increasing bus index) from ext2int(). The order is now left unmodified by ext2int(). This change should only affect user code that explicitly depends on the order of generators with internal numbering (hopefully quite rare).