Jun Cao

Salah Ghamizi, Aleksandar Bojchevski, Aoxiang Ma et al.

Power grids are critical infrastructures of paramount importance to modern society and their rapid evolution and interconnections has heightened the complexity of power systems (PS) operations. Traditional methods for grid analysis struggle with the computational demands of large-scale RES and ES integration, prompting the adoption of machine learning (ML) techniques, particularly Graph Neural Networks (GNNs). GNNs have proven effective in solving the alternating current (AC) Power Flow (PF) and Optimal Power Flow (OPF) problems, crucial for operational planning. However, existing benchmarks and datasets completely ignore safety and robustness requirements in their evaluation and never consider realistic safety-critical scenarios that most impact the operations of the power grids. We present SafePowerGraph, the first simulator-agnostic, safety-oriented framework and benchmark for GNNs in PS operations. SafePowerGraph integrates multiple PF and OPF simulators and assesses GNN performance under diverse scenarios, including energy price variations and power line outages. Our extensive experiments underscore the importance of self-supervised learning and graph attention architectures for GNN robustness. We provide at https://github.com/yamizi/SafePowerGraph our open-source repository, a comprehensive leaderboard, a dataset and model zoo and expect our framework to standardize and advance research in the critical field of GNN for power systems.

Fabien Bernier, Jun Cao, Maxime Cordy et al.

Efficiently solving Optimal Power Flow (OPF) problems in power systems is crucial for operational planning and grid management. There is a growing need for scalable algorithms capable of handling the increasing variability, constraints, and uncertainties in modern power networks while providing accurate and fast solutions. To address this, machine learning techniques, particularly Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have emerged as promising approaches. This letter introduces SafePowerGraph-LLM, the first framework explicitly designed for solving OPF problems using Large Language Models (LLM)s. The proposed approach combines graph and tabular representations of power grids to effectively query LLMs, capturing the complex relationships and constraints in power systems. A new implementation of in-context learning and fine-tuning protocols for LLMs is introduced, tailored specifically for the OPF problem. SafePowerGraph-LLM demonstrates reliable performances using off-the-shelf LLM. Our study reveals the impact of LLM architecture, size, and fine-tuning and demonstrates our framework's ability to handle realistic grid components and constraints.

Aoxiang Ma, Salah Ghamizi, Jun Cao et al.

As machine learning (ML) techniques gain prominence in power system research, validating these methods' effectiveness under real-world conditions requires real-time hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulations. HIL simulation platforms enable the integration of computational models with physical devices, allowing rigorous testing across diverse scenarios critical to system resilience and reliability. In this study, we develop a SafePowerGraph-HIL framework that utilizes HIL simulations on the IEEE 9-bus system, modeled in Hypersim, to generate high-fidelity data, which is then transmitted in real-time via SCADA to an AWS cloud database before being input into a Heterogeneous Graph Neural Network (HGNN) model designed for power system state estimation and dynamic analysis. By leveraging Hypersim's capabilities, we simulate complex grid interactions, providing a robust dataset that captures critical parameters for HGNN training. The trained HGNN is subsequently validated using newly generated data under varied system conditions, demonstrating accuracy and robustness in predicting power system states. The results underscore the potential of integrating HIL with advanced neural network architectures to enhance the real-time operational capabilities of power systems. This approach represents a significant advancement toward the development of intelligent, adaptive control strategies that support the robustness and resilience of evolving power grids.

Daniel J. B. Harrold, Jun Cao, Zhong Fan

As the world seeks to become more sustainable, intelligent solutions are needed to increase the penetration of renewable energy. In this paper, the model-free deep reinforcement learning algorithm Rainbow Deep Q-Networks is used to control a battery in a small microgrid to perform energy arbitrage and more efficiently utilise solar and wind energy sources. The grid operates with its own demand and renewable generation based on a dataset collected at Keele University, as well as using dynamic energy pricing from a real wholesale energy market. Four scenarios are tested including using demand and price forecasting produced with local weather data. The algorithm and its subcomponents are evaluated against two continuous control benchmarks with Rainbow able to outperform all other method. This research shows the importance of using the distributional approach for reinforcement learning when working with complex environments and reward functions, as well as how it can be used to visualise and contextualise the agent's behaviour for real-world applications.