GPA Grid Protection Alliance
Open Source Software & Services for Electric Utilities
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News |
openXDA Version 2.3 & Open PQ Dashboard Version 2.1 Released |
New versions of both the Open PQ Dashboard and the data and analytics layer that supports it, openXDA, were released today by GPA. These versions include two major improvements:
The large database size reduction is a result of elimination of the full-resolution frequency domain from the database. Originally, these values were retained in the database to assure quick user response time as they were displayed. With the new version of openXDA and the PQ Dashboard, these frequency domain values are computed on-the-fly. Additional database size savings were obtained through use of a new lossless compression algorithm for the raw waveform data which will continue to be retained in the openXDA data base. Other improvements included in these releases are:
The next releases of openXDA and the Open PQ Dashboard are scheduled for Fall 2018 and will include improvements funded by clients as well those being funded through the PQ User's Group. These improvements will include:
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PQView® Data Loader Successfully Tested |
PQView is a software system jointly owned by Electrotek Concepts® and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) for building and analyzing databases of power, power quality, and energy measurements. PQView integrates data from digital relays, fault recorders, power quality monitors, smart meters, and SCADA historians into a relational database. A process to quickly and automatically transfer power quality data stored in PQView to openXDA has been tested at TVA. This was accomplished using GPA's PQView Data Loader Service that was developed using funding provided by EPRI. The test was conducted using a sample set of TVA PQ meters to verify that both event and periodic data was flowing successfully in near-real-time from PQView into the openXDA database. Development of the PQView Data Loader was made possible by use of the "PQView SDK" which is a licensed interface provided by Electrotek as part of Release 4 of PQView. For those who use the Open PQ Dashboard and want to implement the PQ View Data Loader at their utility, a "beta" version is available from EPRI. For more information, contact Tom Cooke, EPRI Project Manager. For more information on PQView, go to PQView.com June 8, 2018 |
New Versions of GPA Products |
GSF Version 2.2 ReleasedIn releasing a new version of the Grid Solutions Framework (GSF) today, GPA has also released new versions of the openPDC (Version 2.5), substationSBG (Version 1.4), PDQTracker (Version 1.3), SIEGate (Version 1.6), PMU Connection Tester (Version 4.5.11) and the openHistorian (Version 2.5) -- see more below. All GPA products lean heavily on the GSF to provide common/core functionality. While many users of GPA products install updates frequently based on GPA's nightly builds, GPA recommends that users that have not otherwise upgraded their products since the last March 2017, make plans to upgrade to these new stable product release versions as much of the GSF level updates are related to security improvements. Some of the relevant updates and new GSF features are listed below -- not all updates will apply to all products. New features and functionality in Version 2.2 of the Grid Solutions Framework include:
There have been hundreds of fixes and improvements made to the GSF since the last release in March of 2017. Some of the more significant are:
For more information and to download go GPA's GitHub repositories openHistorian Version 2.5 ReleasedThe last release of the openHistorian, Version 2.4 in January 2018, included improvements in the GSF up until that time. Version 2.5 of the openHistorian includes all the functionality of the latest GSF improvements plus:
For more information and to download see: openHistorian on GitHub June 1, 2018 |
GPA Creating a Go Language Conversion Tool |
A new open source project called go2cs has been launched by GPA on GitHub. The go2cs project is a console application that converts Go language code to C# and is targeted toward developers wanting to bring native Go source code into a .NET development environment. The philosophy used for go2cs is to make the C# code produced visually similar to the original Go code so that it's easily understandable by a Go programmer.
The project is just beginning with initial functionality targeted for structural code conversions. Overall project level conversions are basically complete and the code will produce proper function signatures. Strategies exist for most Go functional constructs in C# and work is beginning on conversion of the Go Standard Library and built-in functions. Currently, the converted code requires .NET version 4.7.1 and C# 7.2 to accommodate better return by-ref functionality for structures. May 31, 2018 |
Continuous Security Assessment |
Beginning in May 2018, the release versions as well as the nightly builds of the openHistorian, openPDC, and SIEGate are continuously analyzed to detect security vulnerabilities. Finding and understanding these vulnerabilities is becoming increasingly important as synchrophasors are beginning to become part of critical infrastructure. GPA security vulnerabilities are identified using SonarQube which includes OWASP Dependency-Check, Security Code Scan and Visual Studio Code Analysis using rulesets based on the Microsoft recommended rules for managed code. Once identified, vulnerabilities are assessed and promptly resolved or mitigation approaches are recommended. From time-to-time, resolution of the vulnerability will require application of security patches. Beginning in June 2018, those who have maintenance contracts with GPA may begin receiving notifications of the availability of these security patches. May 15, 2018 |
Video - Installing the openHistorian and Grafana |
A new video on YouTube is available that walks users through the process of installing and configuring the openHistorian. It also covers the process of building custom displays from openHistorian data using Grafana visualizations -- an open-source platform from Google. Version 2.4 of the openHistorian was released in January 2018 and is available on GitHub May 14, 2018 |
2018 PQ Dashboard User's Group Meeting |
The annual Open PQ Dashboard User's Group Meeting was held in EPRI's offices in Knoxville on April 25, 2018. The meeting focused on industry use cases for the Open PQ Dashboard and its data layer, openXDA. See the Meeting Agenda for details. The presentation slides from User's group meeting are available for download:
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openHistorian Version 2.4 Released |
A new version of the openHistorian has been released and is available on GitHub Version 2.4 of the openHistorian enables Grafana visualizations to be hosted directly by the web server embedded in the openHistorian significantly simplifying the process of implementing new real-time dashboards using data saved in the openHistorian. As part of this new functionality, the openHistorian will maintain user security synchronization with Grafana. Version 2.4 includes other major improvements such as the ability to parse and import data directly from COMTRADE files. For more details on the improvements and fixes in Version 2.4 see the GitHub Release Information January 2, 2018 |
STTP Draft Specification Available |
The first formal draft release of the Streaming Transport Protocol Specification (STTP) is now available on GitHub for review and comment. It's posted at https://github.com/sttp The STTP specification (DOE-OE-859) defines a publish-subscribe data transfer protocol that has been optimized for exchanging streaming time series data, such as synchrophasor data that is used in the electric power industry, over Internet Protocol (IP). The protocol supports transferring both real-time and historical time series data at full or down-sampled resolutions. Protocol benefits are realized at scale when multiplexing very large numbers of time series data points at high speed, such as, hundreds of times per second per data point. An updated PDF of the STTP specification is produced nightly. November 16, 2017 |
openECA Summit Hosted By Dominion Energy |
The Open and Extensible Control and Analytics Platform (openECA) reduces the cost and accelerates the deployment and on-going development of real-time decision support tools, automated control systems and off-line planning systems that incorporate phasor data. openECA is funded through a DOE grant (OE-778) and through the contributions of Dominion Energy, Southwest Power Pool, Oklahoma Gas & Electric, and OSIsoft. It includes development of analytics developed by Virginia Tech and by Trudnowski and Donnelly Consulting Engineers (Montana Tech).
The presentation slides from the openECA Summit are available for download:
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STTP To Be Developed "In the Open" |
To facilitate a collborative process for development of the Streaming Transport Protocol Specification (STTP) that is part of the ASP Project (DOE-OE-859), the STTP specification will be developed "in the open". All changes and edits will be publically available on GitHub https://github.com/sttp August 20, 2017 |
openHistorian Version 2.3 Released |
A new version of the openHistorain was released today. Version 2.3 includes:
For more information and to download see: openHistorian on GitHub July 12, 2017 |
ARMORE Public Release |
Applied Resiliency for More Trustworthy Grid Operation (ARMORE) is an open-source software system that can perform inspection of network packets and alarm on communication that does not comply with the specified ARMORE policy. ARMORE can be configured to take action to block network traffic based on deep inspection of common substation communications protocols, such as the Distributed Network Protocol (DNP3). After validation for compliance with policy, ARMORE can encapsulate and encrypt legacy communications and resiliently transmit this information among ARMORE nodes (such as between the substation and the control center). Through this peer-based framework for secure information exchange, ARMORE provides the functionality to push secure, fault-tolerant real-time communication capabilities deeper into critical utility networks. ARMORE was developed under DOE Office of Electricity Project 676 by GPA, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory over the period from October 2013 through June 2017. See ARMORE on GitHub June 30, 2017 |
PQ Dashboard User's Group Meeting |
The inaugural Open PQ Dashboard User's Group Meeting was held at the EPRI offices in Knoxville on April 18, 2017. The meeting focused on industry use cases for the open PQ Dashboard and it's data layer, openXDA. April 12, 2017 |
New Product Versions Released |
openPDC Version 2.4After several months of pre-release testing, the openPDC version 2.4 is now available. In Version 2.4, there are new features, optimizations and enhancements including:
For more information and to download see: openPDC on GitHub SIEGate Version 1.5This version new version of SIEGate incorporates all the changes of the openPDC Version 2.4. For more information and to download see: SIEGate on GitHub PDQTracker Version 1.2This new version of PDQTracker includes all the applicable updates from the openPDC Version 2.4, plus:
For more information and to download see: PDQTracker on GitHub substationSBG Version 1.3This new version of the substationSBG includes all the applicable updates from the openPDC Version 2.4, plus:
For more information and to download see: substationSBG on GitHub March 17, 2017 |
New Version of Stream Splitter Released |
Version 1.0.28 of the Synchrophasor Stream Splitter was released today. It includes:
For more information and to download see: Stream Splitter on GitHub March 15, 2017 |
openMIC Version 1.0 Released |
GPA has released a new open source product called openMIC (Meter Information Collector) that can poll DFRs and other substation devices and automatically download data via FTP or ModBus. Adminstrators can define multiple meter interrogation schedules in openMIC -- including polling each meter as fast as possbile. openMIC includes copious logging including a detailed meter interaction history in a relational data base to generate meter issue notifications and produce meter status reports. A mobile-ready application is included to show the iterrogation history of each meter/DFR. March 10, 2017 |
GPA Selected to be Part of DOE Grid Moderization Initiative |
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced the award of a $2.2 million dollar project called the Advanced Synchrophasor Project (ASP), to a team lead by GPA. The new publish-subscribe protocol will significantly improve the quality and robustness of the synchrophasor data exchange layer that functions as the foundation for reliability management tools. This project will lower both the first cost and on-going operting cost of operating synchrophasor data systems. The new protocol will be called the Streaming Teletry Transport Protocol (STTP), and it will support transferring both real-time and historical time series data at full or down-sampled resolutions. Protocol benefits are realized at scale when multiplexing a large number of time series data points at high speed, such as, hundreds of times per second per data point. Ideal use cases for STTP will include those that need to securely exchange a large volume of continuously measured data. See the DOE News Release for more information. October 19, 2016 |
openECA Project Selected for funding by DOE |
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced the award of a $5 million dollar project to a team lead by GPA. The DOE funding will be used over the next two years to create software that enables the deployment of synchrophasor data analytics. Partners with GPA on the project are Dominion Virginia Power, Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company, Southwest Power Pool, Northwestern Energy, Virginia Technological University and T&D Consulting Engineers. The project will create an “Open and Extensible Control and Analytics Platform of Phasor Data”. Called “openECA” the project software includes components to filter and condition the phasor data as well as 9 different analytic components including oscillation detection and wide-area voltage control. August 3, 2015 |
openPDC Service Pack 1 Released |
Service Pack 1 to Version 2.1 of the openPDC was released today so that a fix can be deployed to resolve a slow memory leak when continuously running the openPDC manager on the server which also hosts the openPDC. The service pack includes also includes several dozen enhancements and fixes in addition to those listed below. See: openPDC 2.1 Service Pack 1 on codeplex for the full list. Service Pack 1 includes:
Service Pack 1 fixes:
Note that the SP1 fixes coming from the Grid Solutions Framework have also been applied as updates to SIEGate, substationSBG, PDQTracker and Project Alpha. Version 2.2 of the openPDC is planned for release in March 2016. July 29, 2015 |
PDQTracker Beta Deployed at PeakRC |
The Beta version of PDQTracker is now available on codeplex. It was deployed today at PeakRC for testing and evaluation. This version of the PDQTracker includes all the fixes included with openPDC v2.1, including those in the forthcoming SP1 release. Some of the improvements to be implemented in the next release of PDQTracker include:
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openXDA Version 1.3 Released |
A major release of openXDA was made today as part of the deployment of openXDA at Georgia Transmission. Version 1.3 includes the ability to automatically perform double-ended fault location along with significantly improved fault detection logic which provides better rejection of false positive results. In addition, version 1.3 includes:
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GPA Products Support ZeroMQ |
The "zero" in ZeroMQ represents zero broker, zero latency (or low latency), zero administration and zero cost. With this as the business case, the fault-tolerant ZeroMQ messaging technology has been selected by the ARMORE design team as the method to transparently encapsulate and encrypt data in substation protocols as it is moved among ARMORE nodes. See: Why ZeroMQ is preferred for Synchrophasor Data Using ZeroMQ and its Curve security protocol allows ARMORE to employ a fast, widely adopted messaging layer for secure data exchange for both command messages and encapsulated data packets. This enables ARMORE node interoperability even with future implementations by using common ZeroMQ semantics that guarantee a command sent by one implementation can be correctly processed by another implementation. As part of the work for ARMORE, the Grid Solutions Framework now includes ZeroMQ messaging and it has been incorporated into the lasted development builds of the openPDC, substationSBG and SIEGate as a protocol type selectable through configuration. June 1, 2015 |
Project Alpha Available on Codeplex |
As a service to jump-start developers in the creation of new products based on the Time-Series Library, a Visual Studio project template called TSL Project Alpha is now available on Codeplex. It can be used as the starting point to develop new applications from GPA's extensible code base. GPA has worked with several individuals and organizations over the years to develop custom action adapters (both proprietary and open source) that perform a synchrophasor analysis or calculation that is delivered to the user as a stand-alone product. Using the TSL Alpha Project it is now much more convenient for developers to create their own product by starting from a clean project template -- rather than building a new product as a one-off from an existing project, such as from the openPDC. For more information see: TSL Project Alpha. March 10, 2015 |
New Product Versions Released |
openPDC Version 2.1After several months of pre-release testing, the openPDC version 2.1 is now available. In Version 2.1, there are new features, optimizations and enhancements plus this is the first version of the openPDC to officially support Linux and Apple OS X operating systems -- POSIX environments. This POSIX support is currently for all components within the Time Series Library but the "product manager". See: TSL Components for more information. Version 2.1 of the openPDC includes automated data recovery, or "gap filling", when connected to other devices that support GPA's Gateway Exchange Protocol. These devices include the openPDC, the new substation Secure Buffered Gateway (substationSBG) and SIEGate. With this feature, the openPDC can request data that was lost during routine maintenance and other communications outages. The missing data is requested at a rate to minimize adverse impacts to real-time operations. Other major improvements in Version 2.1 of the openPDC include:
For more information and to download see: openPDC on Codeplex SIEGate Version 1.1This release of SIEGate enables the SIEGate service to be run on Linux and includes many bug fixes -- including those resolved with release of the openPDC Version 2.1. For more information and to download see: SIEGate on Codeplex substationSBG Version 1.0After testing on fan-less substation computers the first production version of the substationSBG has been released. It also includes the ability to run the substationSBG service on Linux. For more information and to download see: substationSBG on Codeplex March 6, 2015 |
EPRI Open PQ Dashboard To Be Readied for Production Use |
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has asked GPA to refine the EPRI Open PQ Dashboard Version 0.7 (beta) so that it can be easily deployable, fully-supported production application. Under this 2015 EPRI project, GPA will implement new system configuration features as well as more comprehensive PQ event categorization and reporting, among other improvements to the dashboard. The EPRI Open PQ Dashboard is a browser-based tool that provides insight through an integrated presentation of PQ and DFR data. The Open PQ Dashboard displays data housed within openXDA data base. Disturbance and power quality trending data is presented in the dashboard in easily understood geographic, grid, histogram, and tabular displays that allow the user to quickly assess the status of the system and focus on the aspects of PQ that are most important for the task at hand. March 2, 2015 |
GPA Changes to MIT License |
The use of open source software is growing and its nature is evolving. To better align with a recent open source announcement from Microsoft, GPA is updating all source code to be released under the MIT License. Since GPA's inception in 2010, GPA has used the Eclipse Public License (EPL) for release of its source code. Both the Eclipse Public License and the MIT License are "permissive" free software licenses. "Permissive" meaning that the source code can be freely used within proprietary software. GPA originally selected the Eclipse Public License since it was viewed as the permissive license that was the most congruent with the open source license used by the Tennessee Valley Authority where a large portion of GPA open source code originated. However, the EPL places some restrictions on the open source release of derivative software products. The MIT License is considerably more simple than the EPL and does not include the EPL restrictions. Therefore, the MIT license has been chosen to assure that GPA's code can be flexibly used as broadly as possible. GPA is currently in the process of updating source code headers to reflect this change. This work is expected to be completed within the next few weeks. February 20, 2015 |
openHistorian 2.0 Beta in Production Use at OG&E and Entergy |
The new openHistorian 2.0 BETA has been installed and is in production use at Oklahoma Gas & Electric and Entergy archiving synchrophasor data. The archive performance and historical query speed of the new historian deployment are ideal for large high-speed, streaming synchrophasor deployments. The openHistorian 2.0 has been optimized for:
January 15, 2015 |
System Event Explorer Now Available |
The open System Event Explorer (openSEE) has been officially released on codeplex. See: openSystemEventExplorer.com. openSEE is a browser-based wave-form display tool that can be implemented in conjunction with openXDA. A link to openSEE is typically embedded in e-mails automatically produced by openXDA so that e-mail recipients can quickly access the waveforms that were triggered based on DFR and PQ meter events. openSEE will allow two waveforms to be displayed so that comparisons of data can be made -- from different channels in the same DFR that triggered the event or from channels in other DFRs. An optional phasor display is also available to easily resolve phase angles. January 7, 2015 |
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