Phase 2 Go Live!
Last month we delivered Phase 2 of the Repository, with a focus on model semantic browsing features.
These features allow users to analyze and browse the contents of model files without downloading. We are supporting several common formats (GridLab-D, MatLab, IEEE, PSS-E) with more expected soon. Users can also download the models in a more convenient JSON format.
Please contact us if you are interested in volunteering as a curator, have a model to submit, or new features to suggest.
Industry Activities
This quarter we began providing Project Data Curation Services to two different DOE ENERGISE projects.
The first of these is with the California Institute of Energy Efficiency (CIEE) on a Phasor Data Controller demonstration. The second is with University of California Riverside and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) to deploy an Active Network Management solution at a UC Riverside pilot site.
So far, we have developed the Data Management, Interoperability, and Cyber-Security Plans for these projects, as per DOE requirements. We are now setting up private ‘Collaboration Repositories’ to enable the team to securely share documents, grid models, test data, and source code during the development phase.
Research & Development
While implementing the Phase 2 semantic searching functionality, we have also started developing the plumbing for a ‘natural language processing’ search engine. This will give users the ability to write more natural search instructions (‘find a matlab model with more than 20 buses and…’) similar to how people use popular search engines. We will release some initial capability in Phase 3, along with support for more model formats.
Organization Governance
The Technical Committee met on November 14th to review the Phase 3 Functional Requirements and provide feedback on potential enhancement ideas. The BetterGrids Foundation next Board Meeting is scheduled for April 26, 2018.
BetterGrids governance information and meeting minutes are located on the About page.
Quarterly Repository Metrics
As of December 1st, we had 291 distinct grid models with over 615mb of data – so the repository is still growing. We also grew from 92 users to 210 accounts. Model downloads have doubled over the last quarter to more than 41,480 since we launched in late April.
We still expect to see these numbers grow further as the other GRID DATA projects start depositing materials in the coming months.