Skip to content

DSS MATLAB 0.13.3
Compare
Choose a tag to compare
@PMeira PMeira released this 12 Jun 08:47
· 9 commits to master since this release
0.13.3
44b98b4

Version 0.13.3 is a bugfix release. Read below regarding engine changes.

What's this?

DSS MATLAB is a member of the family of multi-platform language bindings based on the DSS C-API project, which exposes an alternative/customized implementation of the original EPRI's OpenDSS, with a custom API intended to replace and extend the functionality of the official COM object API, while also adding and improving some of the DSS engine internals. For other languages: check DSS-Python, OpenDSSDirect.py and DSS Sharp. See more alternatives at https://dss-extensions.org/

As with DSS-Python and DSS Sharp, this package tries to mimic the COM object structure to facilitate the transition and keep most of the existing code valid. The package is usually faster than the COM object. Most of the missing features are related to the plotting methods from OpenDSS and A-Diakoptics, which are not available in DSS C-API yet. You can, of course, use MATLAB's plotting capabilities.

We are currently evaluating reimplementing DSS_MATLAB using MEX. This would potentially allow us to integrate some plotting functions and also parfor support with pool('threads').

⚙️ DSS C-API Version 0.13.3

Bugfix release for some components. No other major changes.

Fixes ported from the official OpenDSS v9.6.1.2 (SVN r3619) released on 2023-06-06, plus our custom changes (including new tests). Test circuits cross-validated as usual.

  • LoadShape: check if there's any allocated pointer before normalizing. Since we provide more ways to fill the LoadShape data besides the official alternatives, we needed to add a few more checks in case of misuse to avoid using invalid pointers. Includes a minor fix to how manual values (set by the user) for mean and stddev are handled.

  • show command: adjust formatting for show variables, show isolated, show loops, show faults.

  • GICTransformer: clean-up the code and add a minor fix for BusX.

  • Editor: tweak how the process is started; works better on Linux for terminal-based editors (GUI editors are recommended for a better experience though).

  • Obj/API and headers: new functions and add a few warnings in the docs.

  • New compatibility flag in DSSCompatFlags: add SaveCalcVoltageBases. On recent versions, running a save circuit doesn't include a CalcVoltageBases anymore since that causes issues for some users. We added the new flag SaveCalcVoltageBases to restore the old/original behavior. More options are planned for a future version in a dedicated function in the API.

  • Ported (and complemented) from the official OpenDSS SVN code:

    • UPFC, r3610: "Fixing losses in UPFC model, there was a bug introduced several years ago when trying to redefine losses based on residual currents (bad idea)." (by davismont)
    • CapControl, r3615: "Fixing property requirement (element) for capcontrol in Time and Follow control modes", by davismont
    • Capacitor/Reactor: fixes related to 1- or 2-phase LL objects and Yprim; NormAmps/EmergAmps.
      • r3613: "Fixing bug in Yprim formation for 1-ph and 2-ph delta-connected capacitors. Fix to user-specified NormAmps and EmergAmps for capacitors, which were always being overridden with default values. Pending to check for same issues on Reactors." (by celsorocha)
      • r3616: "Fixing bug in Yprim formation for 1-ph and 2-ph delta-connected reactors. Fix to user-specified NormAmps and EmergAmps for reactors, which were always being overridden with default values." (by celsorocha)
      • Also includes an extra fix for a corner-case issue detected with our tests on DSS-Extensions.
    • PVSystem/Storage/InvControl, r3597/r3598: "Adding current limiting capabilities to IBR in QSTS and dynamics modes. Examples also available." (by davismont). Also refactored more common code to InvBasedPCE on the DSS-Extensions version.

📦 Downloads

Download the file according to your platform, as each file contains platform-specific binaries:

macOS ARM/M1/etc. support will be added when there are stable MATLAB releases, probably in 2023. ARM support is already available for other DSS-Extensions and it should be easy to use it on ARM Macs (just replace the binaries from DSS C-API).

If you want to try DSS_MATLAB with a sample circuit, a simple example for the IEEE13 system is also included in the download package, under the examples folder. Continue reading for more.

Basic usage

  1. Download and extract the package appropriate for your system.
  2. Add the folder containing +DSS_MATLAB to your MATLAB path (e.g. path(path, 'c:\dss_matlab');).
  3. Instantiate DSS_MATLAB.IDSS. For example:
dss = DSS_MATLAB.IDSS;

If you code is based on DSSStartup.m from the examples included in the official distribution, in general you only need to replace the Obj = actxserver('OpenDSSEngine.DSS'); line. That is, update DSSStartup.m to:

%--------------------------------------------------------------------------
function [Start,Obj,Text] = DSSStartup
    % Function for starting up the DSS
    
    %instantiate the DSS Object
    Obj = DSS_MATLAB.IDSS;
    %
    %Start the DSS.   Only needs to be executed the first time w/in a
    %Matlab session
    Start = Obj.Start(0);

    % Define the text interface
    Text = Obj.Text;

If you want more code to play with, you can use the MATLAB examples from the official OpenDSS distribution, from a local installation (e.g. C:\OpenDSS\Examples\Matlab) or from the official SVN repository.

Sandia's GridPV toolbox has been confirmed to work with very minor changes. Note that the toolbox seems to be out-of-date for some features, so don't expect everything to work even with COM (e.g. Google Maps integration seems broken).

As a general advice (valid for COM and DSS_MATLAB), avoid using the get function without parameters on OpenDSS classes. Some properties like First and Next used for iteration of elements change the current active element and can lead to misleading data!

Known differences and more

We maintain a list of important differences between the official COM implementation and DSS C-API at:

https://github.com/dss-extensions/dss_capi/blob/master/docs/known_differences.md

Most of these apply indirectly to DSS_MATLAB.

Credits / Acknowledgement

This project is derived from EPRI's OpenDSS and the same style of license (BSD style) is used. As OpenDSS, the project also depends on KLUSolve and SuiteSparse, licensed under the LGPL. The licenses are included in the installation packages.

See the DSS C-API project for more details and source files.

Assets 5
Loading