ADSM - AN AUTOMATED DISTRIBUTION-SYSTEM MODELING TOOL FOR ENGINEERING

Designing and operating the distribution system efficiently and econom ically requires distribution engineers to perform various analytical s tudies frequently. The system model for these analyses are derived fro m the information residing in diverse utility databases. One major pro blem in utilizing these databases is the data mismatch due to differen t software specifications and hardware platforms. This means additiona l effort is required to transform data among these systems before engi neers can perform any distribution system analyses. The Automated Dist ribution System Modeler (ADSM) developed jointly at the University of Washington (UW) and Puget Sound Power and Light Co. (PSPL) provides an automated approach for the distribution system modeling. This softwar e tool builds a unified distribution system model automatically from t he utility databases and provides a generic interface to various engin eering analysis took This paper describes the Object-Oriented design c oncept of such a tool and discusses the merits of the Geographic Infor mation System (GIS) environment used as a platform for ADSM.