Physics-Informed Neural Networks for Time-Domain Simulations: Accuracy, Computational Cost, and Flexibility

TL;DR

This paper explores the use of Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) for simulating power system dynamics, demonstrating significant speed improvements, sufficient accuracy, and stability, along with a new regularisation technique for training neural networks.

Contribution

It introduces a new regularisation method for training PINNs called dtNNs and evaluates their performance in power system dynamic simulations, highlighting their advantages and limitations.

Findings

PINNs are 10 to 1000 times faster than conventional solvers.

PINNs maintain accuracy and stability with large time steps.

The new dtNN regularisation improves neural network training.

Abstract

The simulation of power system dynamics poses a computationally expensive task. Considering the growing uncertainty of generation and demand patterns, thousands of scenarios need to be continuously assessed to ensure the safety of power systems. Physics-Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) have recently emerged as a promising solution for drastically accelerating computations of non-linear dynamical systems. This work investigates the applicability of these methods for power system dynamics, focusing on the dynamic response to load disturbances. Comparing the prediction of PINNs to the solution of conventional solvers, we find that PINNs can be 10 to 1000 times faster than conventional solvers. At the same time, we find them to be sufficiently accurate and numerically stable even for large time steps. To facilitate a deeper understanding, this paper also present a new regularisation of Neural Network (NN) training by introducing a gradient-based term in the loss function. The resulting NNs, which we call dtNNs, help us deliver a comprehensive analysis about the strengths and weaknesses of the NN based approaches, how incorporating knowledge of the underlying physics affects NN performance, and how this compares with conventional solvers for power system dynamics.