OBJECT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT OF SOFTWARE SYSTEMS FOR POWER-SYSTEM SIMULATIONS

The software systems developed for power system simulations have evolv ed into such complicated systems that the applied design practices app ear inadequate to support further enhancement and maintenance. The maj or obstacles stem directly or indirectly from the conventional functio n-oriented software development methodologies. To overcome the drawbac ks of these methodologies, this paper proposes applying object-oriente d technology for power system software development. As an illustration of this approach, the Object Modeling Technique (OMT), an object-orie nted software development methodology, is used to develop a distributi on analysis system. With this technique, a generic Distribution Circui t Object Model (DCOM) is designed based on the real-world concepts and implemented with the object-oriented programming techniques. The deve loped DCOM is capable of supporting a wide range of distribution appli cations and allowing modification and maintenance over a long period o f time. The performed case study has demonstrated that object-oriented technology, when applied to each stage of software development, can h elp achieve complicated tasks in Dower system simulations.