Simulator 16 User Guide - PowerWorld

PV Curves: Output
The Output tab is found on the PV Curves dialog and allows the designation of where data should be
logged.
During the PV analysis, the value of each monitored quantity is recorded at each solved transfer level.
This data will only be present in memory unless some output file is specified.
Specifying File for Results
Save results to file
Click this option to save results to a file. In the adjacent text box supply the complete path and
name for the output file. If a directory is included with the output file and it does not exist, the
directory will be created. If the directory cannot be created, an error will result and the PV
analysis will not start. Click the Browse button to open a save dialog that will allow selection of
the output file. Click the View button to open the specified output file in a text editor. The View
button will be enabled if the specified output file exists.
The results will be saved as a comma-separated variable file regardless of the file extension
chosen. Set the file extension to .CSV to make the file type more recognizable by programs such
as Excel. If using the save dialog opened with the Browse button, the Save as type field on the
save dialog should be set to reflect the desired file extension. Regardless of the file extension
chosen, the file is a text file with all contents separated by commas.
When saving results to a file, a log file will also be created that indicates how long the entire PV
process took and the different base case and contingency scenarios examined at each nominal
shift level. This log file will use the same file name specified for the output file with "_LOG"
appended to the end of the file name. The log file will be saved with .TXT extension. If running
multiple instances of Simulator for PV analysis, a unique file name must be given to each set of
results to avoid overwriting results created from other instances.
Transpose results
Click this option to transpose the columns and rows in each section of the output file. The output
file is divided in sections for each of the studied scenarios. The default file format organizes the
file so that each row represents a transfer level and each column represents a tracked quantity.
The transposed file is formatted such that each row represents a tracked quantity with each
column representing a transfer level. This format is useful when the number of tracked quantities
exceeds the number of transfer levels.
Single Header File
Additional file formats are available when saving results to file when not transposing the file. If
using the default output format (Single Header file option and Transpose results option both
unchecked), each scenario will be written as a section with a header line at the beginning of each
section indicating what fields are included. Scenarios that become critical during the analysis will
be listed with the base case scenario at the shift level at which they became critical. An example
of this format is given below:
Example for Default PV Output:
RESULTS FOR PV STUDY "PVSTUDY" *
*Scenario** "base case"
"Nominal", "Export", "Import","Bus 3 (Three_138.0) PU Volt","Bus 5 (Five_138.0) PU
Volt","Newly Critical"
0.0000, 0.0000, 0.0000, 0.9927, 1.0066,
100.0000,100.0000,-98.7365, 0.9928, 1.0062,
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