Phase 3 Live
After a brief delay due to longer than expected testing, Phase 3 has now been released.
The key enhancement of this release is our semantic search engine with more user-friendly ‘natural language processing’. Users can easily search the repository with more intuitive English phrases or questions. We also delivered native support for several new model formats, including OpenDSS, RED, and PowerWorld.
Industry Activities
On May 18th, Ali Vojdani and Terry Nielsen gave a technical webinar on behalf of BetterGrids to the IEEE Power & Energy Society. The topic of the webinar was “Finding the Right Grid Model for Your Research in the GRID DATA Repository Using Big Data Semantic Search.” The presentation described the database and conversion technologies evaluated, selected, and deployed. It also included a live demo of the natural language search capability that researchers can use to find models of interest. Over 100 people participated in the webinar, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive as one of the best in last year.
If you missed the webinar, we will be speaking about the BetterGrids Repository at the IEEE PES General Meeting in Portland on two panel sessions: “Data Science and Data Quality as Applied to Power System: Ensuring Data Quality in Power Systems Research using the BetterGrids.org Repository for Very Large Grid Models” on Tuesday, August 7, 2018, 1:00-5:00PM; “Best Practices in Sharing Big Data in Power Systems: Finding the right grid model for your research in the BetterGrids.org public Grid Data Repository using big data semantic search” on Wednesday, August 8, 2018 from 1:00-3:00PM.
On August 4-5th, we will be presenting the BetterGrids Repository at a National Science Foundation workshop on Analytics for a Resilient Grid. Also, on August 15-16th, we will be exhibiting at the MISO Market Symposium where innovators, thinkers and industry visionaries will discuss how new technologies can increase the ability for energy markets to transform the industry.
Research and Development
In our efforts to invent value-added services to make BetterGrids become self-sufficient, we formulated several new concepts and submitted multiple grant applications to extend the Repository and BetterGrids services. Examples are enabling secure exchange of grid data, and adding invertor models and load data to the Repository.
BetterGrids Board Meeting
In April, we held the annual BetterGrids Board Meeting. The meeting reviewed the 2017 performance, established goals for 2018, and added two new Board members – Dr. Ram Rajagopal of Stanford University, and CPA Chad McArthur of Hood & Strong LLP as our Audit Chair.
Quarterly Repository Metrics
Models from the other GRID DATA projects continue to trickle in. We added another 65 user accounts, and the pace of downloads is accelerating. The new advanced semantic searching functions will make it easier to find models as the repository continues to grow.