powerweb-rs

Project setup

npm install

Compiles and hot-reloads for development

npm run serve

Compiles and minifies for production

npm run build

Customize configuration

See Configuration Reference.

Overview

This repository holds GridVerse, a web and desktop front end for live PowerWorld Dynamics Studio (PWDS) simulations, written by Zeyu Mao in 2021-22. The text above is the Vue CLI project template. The app was first called PowerWeb (powerweb-electron in the first commit's package.json) and is gridverse 2.4.0 in the current package.json. A Python backend in py/ connects to a PWDS server over the PWDS TCP protocol, registers a data package, and pushes live values to every connected browser over Socket.IO. Users log in with a name and the address and port of the backend, watch the case on maps, tables, strip charts and generation charts, send device commands (for example open or close a branch, or set generator MW), and start, pause, continue or abort the simulation. A report dialog lets the user download a JSON report of the session.

How it works

flowchart LR
  PWDS["PowerWorld Dynamics Studio<br/>PWDS server (TCP)"]
  PROTO["py/powerworldDS_eventlet.py<br/>PWDS protocol client"]
  CFG["py/config.py<br/>fields per object type"]
  SRV["py/ds_mp.py<br/>Socket.IO server (default port 9990)"]
  UI["Vue 2 front end<br/>src/components/MqttClient.vue"]
  CASE["src/assets/2019GA.json<br/>saved case dictionary"]
  VIEWS["Dashboard views<br/>maps, tables, strips, charts"]
  REP["Report download<br/>UIN-Name-CaseX.json"]
  PWDS -->|"simulation data"| PROTO
  PROTO --> SRV
  CFG --> SRV
  SRV -->|"/ds/data (msgpack)"| UI
  CASE --> UI
  UI --> VIEWS
  VIEWS --> REP
  UI -->|"S000/user/cmd, S000/user/system"| SRV
  SRV -->|"tcmCommand, start, pause, abort"| PROTO
  PROTO -->|"commands"| PWDS

Loading

1. py/ds_mp.py opens a TCP connection to PWDS, requests the case dictionary (tcmDictionary), and registers data package 1000 (tcmGetData). The package holds the fields listed in py/config.py for all areas and for the buses, substations, generators, loads and shunts in area number 2, plus the branches and transformers connected to those buses.
2. Once a second it requests that package (tcmGetDataByID), rounds the values to two decimals, and emits them on /ds/data as msgpack.
3. The front end connects with socket.io-client, decodes the messages, and stores them in the Vuex store (src/store.js). The views read from the store. The static case layout (names, limits, substation coordinates, generator costs) comes from src/assets/2019GA.json and src/assets/2019GAR.json, which are bundled into the build.
4. Commands from the UI go out on S000/user/cmd and S000/user/system. The backend checks device commands against its command list and forwards them to PWDS (tcmCommand, start, pause, continue, abort, run to a given second). PWDS state changes come back on /ds/system, and command confirmations on /ds/note.

Repository layout

Folder	What it contains	Main contributor (git history)	Start here
src/	Vue 2 + Vuetify front end: login page, dashboard, views, Vuex store (src/store.js), bundled case data in src/assets/	Zeyu Mao	src/views/Login.vue, src/components/Dashboard.vue, src/components/MqttClient.vue
py/	Python backend (PWDS protocol client and Socket.IO server), test client, build scripts, committed Windows builds	Zeyu Mao	py/ds_mp.py
resources/	Neutralino desktop build of the front end (minified, 2021-12-05)	Zeyu Mao	resources/index.html
src-tauri/	Tauri (Rust) desktop shell; bundles ../pydist/ds_client as an external binary	Zeyu Mao	src-tauri/tauri.conf.json
public/	HTML template, icons and web manifest used by Vue CLI	Zeyu Mao	public/index.html
dist/	Production web build from 2022-08-17, built for the /GridUniverse/ path (GitHub Pages)	Zeyu Mao	dist/index.html
bin/	Neutralino runtime binaries (Windows, Linux, macOS) and WebView2Loader.dll	Zeyu Mao	none

src/main.js imports ./store and ./router, which resolve to src/store.js and src/router.js. The src/store/ and src/router/ folders are not used. Other saved case dictionaries in src/assets/ (150-bus, 200-bus and further 2,000-bus variants) and src/assets/USA.json are not imported by the current code.

Root files:

File	What it does
package.json, package-lock.json	npm scripts and front-end dependencies
vue.config.js, babel.config.js, postcss.config.js	Vue CLI 4 build settings (production publicPath is /GridUniverse/)
neutralino.config.json	Neutralino app settings (window, /resources/ path, binary version 3.3.0)
move-binary.js	Renames pydist/ds_client(.exe) with the Rust target triple; run by the Tauri scripts
ds_client.exe	Backend executable started by the Neutralino build. It is byte-identical to the 2021-12-05 build of py/dist/ds_mp.exe (the Socket.IO backend).
ds_client.spec	PyInstaller spec for py\ds_client.py
vite.config.js, index.html	Vite setup from 2021-11; no npm script uses it and Vite is not in package.json
neutralinojs.log	Neutralino runtime log from 2021-12-05

Setup

1. Access to a PowerWorld Dynamics Studio (PWDS) server with a case loaded (PowerWorld licence required), reachable over TCP from the machine that runs the backend.
2. Python 3.9 for the backend (the committed builds bundle Python 3.9.7). From the repository root:

   python -m venv .venv
   .venv\Scripts\activate
   pip install -r requirements.txt
   

3. Node.js and npm for the front end. The build uses Vue CLI 4 and webpack 4, so use Node.js 16, or set NODE_OPTIONS=--openssl-legacy-provider on Node.js 17 or newer. Then run npm install in the repository root.
4. The one-line view (src/components/OneLine.vue) loads Mapbox tiles. Supply your own Mapbox access token in that file.
5. Optional: the Neutralino CLI (npm install -g @neutralinojs/neu) to run the desktop build in resources/.
6. The backend and front end need no path edits. py/build.py and py/gzip_json.py contain hard-coded C:\Users\test\NodeProjects\PowerWeb-RS-electron\... paths; edit them before using those two scripts.

Running

1. Start PWDS and note the host and port it listens on. Start it before the backend: ds_mp.py connects once at start-up and does not retry if that first connection fails.
2. Start the backend from py/:

   cd py
   python ds_mp.py <PWDS host> <PWDS port> <server port>
   

   Example: python ds_mp.py localhost 5557 9990. Give all three arguments; with fewer, the script uses its built-in defaults (192.168.1.221, 5557, 9990). To rebuild config.py from datafields.json first, set ENV=DEV (set ENV=DEV in cmd, $env:ENV="DEV" in PowerShell) before starting.
3. Start the front end from the repository root:

   npm run serve
   

   Open the URL it prints (Vue CLI uses port 8080 by default).
4. On the login page enter a name, the IP address of the machine running ds_mp.py (default localhost), and the Server Port (default 9990, as in the example). The Simulation ID field is commented out in src/views/Login.vue, so the ID is always 000, which matches the S000 prefix fixed in ds_mp.py. The "Connect to DS" checkbox is disabled, so the DS Port field stays hidden.
5. For a production web build run npm run build. It writes dist/ for the /GridUniverse/ path.
6. For the Neutralino desktop build run neu run (or npm run neu:serve) from the repository root. See resources/README.md.

Inputs and outputs

• Input: a live PWDS simulation over TCP (host and port given to ds_mp.py).
• Input: py/config.py, with the same content as py/datafields.json and src/assets/datafields.json: the fields requested for areas, substations, buses, generators, loads, shunts, branches and transformers.
• Input: src/assets/2019GA.json, a saved PWDS case dictionary bundled into the front end: 2 areas ("Rest of Texas" and "South Texas"), 2,000 buses, 1,250 substations with latitude and longitude, 511 generators with cost data, 1,360 loads, 160 shunts, 2,345 branches and 861 transformers. src/assets/2019GAR.json is the area 2 subset (166 buses). To use another case, change the imports at the top of src/store.js and check the backend's area filter.
• Output: live values, notifications and charts in the browser; commands sent to PWDS.
• Output: a JSON report downloaded from the report dialog (UIN-Name-CaseX.json).
• Output: py/config.py is rewritten when ENV=DEV is set.

Known issues

• npm run electron:serve, electron:build, tauri:serve and tauri:build call Vue CLI plugins that are not in package.json (vue-cli-plugin-electron-builder, vue-cli-plugin-tauri), so they fail as written. The Tauri scripts also need Rust and a pydist/ds_client build.
• npm run python:build fails: PyInstaller rejects --add-data ./py/datafields.json without a destination ("Wrong syntax, should be --add-data=SOURCE:DEST"). The script also packages py/ds_client.py, the older ZeroMQ backend, which the current Socket.IO front end cannot talk to. The Electron launcher (src/background.js) and the Tauri config both expect this build.
• Both backends request data only for area number 2 (fixed in setup_dictionary_data). With a case that has no area 2, the data package holds only area-level values.
• py/build.py and py/gzip_json.py use hard-coded C:\Users\test\... paths.

Contributors

From the git history:

• Zeyu Mao: 79 commits

Status

• First commit 2021-11-08; last code commit 2022-08-17 (a production build in dist/ and the /GridUniverse/ publicPath in vue.config.js, for GitHub Pages).
• Front end (src/): last changed 2022-04-08. Backend source (py/ds_mp.py): last changed 2021-12-05; the committed py/dist/ds_mp.exe was rebuilt on 2022-03-16.
• Earlier packaging work, not changed since: Tauri (src-tauri/, 2021-11-19 to 2021-11-25), Electron (src/background.js, last changed 2021-11-26), Neutralino (resources/, bin/, 2021-11-30 to 2021-12-05), and the ZeroMQ backend (py/ds_client.py, last changed 2021-11-16).
• The remote also has the branches tamu, gh-pages, neutralino, electron, socketio, neutrino and vuetify2.