PowerSystem Data Model

December 19, 2025 · View on GitHub

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A data model for the description of electrical power systems.

Field of Application

This data model is intended to describe electrical power systems. It provides a hierarchical structure/schema to describe unique entity relations as well as parameter sets.

Read also this comprehensive blog post about the PSDM.

The data model is structured as the following schema:

Grid Topology

This is the base topology containing all elements of the exported grid:

  • Branches (symmetrical: overhead lines, cables, fuses from type "branch")
  • Nodes
  • Transformers (symmetrical: 2- or 3-winding)
  • External grids
  • Loads (consumer, producer, grid assets) topology relationship diagram

In addition to the explicitly defined element attributes, it is possible to save user-specific additional information as optional AttributeData (Export example of powerfactory-tools).

Topology Case

This holds information about disabled elements to represent a specific operational case based on the base topology. topology case relationship diagram

Steadystate Case

This holds information for a specific operational case such as:

  • power draw/infeed of load
  • tap position of transformer
  • operating point of external grid steadystate case relationship diagram

General Remarks

Please find below some important general remarks and assumptions to consider for consistent usage across different applications:

  • The passive sign convention should be used for all types of loads (consumer as well as producer).
  • Numeric values should be set using the SI unit convention.
  • Topology
    • Only symmetrical grid assets, e.g. transformer or line, are supported.
    • The Rated Power should always be defined positive (absolute value).
  • The interaction between load models and controllers are depicted in the following schematic: active/reactive power schematics

Installation

Just install via pip:

pip install ieeh-power-system-data-model

Development

Install the Python package and project manager uv

Clone power-system-data-model

git@github.com:ieeh-tu-dresden/power-system-data-model.git

cd power-system-data-model

Install power-system-data-model as a production tool

uv sync --no-dev

Install power-system-data-model in development mode

uv sync

For development in Visual Studio Code, all configurations are already provided:

Attribution

Please provide a link to this repository:

https://github.com/ieeh-tu-dresden/power-system-data-model

Please cite as:

Institute of Electrical Power Systems and High Voltage Engineering - TU Dresden, Power System Data Model - A data model for the description of electrical power systems, Zenodo, 2023. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8087079.

DOI

Alternatively, when using the PSDM together with the powerfactory-tools, please cite also:

S. Krahmer, S. J. Rasti, L. Fiedler and M. Schmidt, „PowerFactory-Tools: A Python Package to Facilitate the Control of DIgSILENT PowerFactory“. Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS), 10(116), 9281, 2025. doi: 10.21105/joss.09281.

DOI