PowerSkills

Senior power-engineer playbook for power-flow convergence failures. Use whenever a base case or post-change case diverges, oscillates, or fails to solve in PSS/E, PSLF, PowerWorld, pandapower, PyPSA, surge, or OpenDSS. Triggers on "power flow diverged", "case won't solve", "did not converge", "blown-up voltages", or "max iterations reached". Every tool skill stops on a non-convergent base case — this playbook is what to do next, separating data errors from numerical fragility from genuine physical infeasibility.

Senior power-engineer playbook for distribution DER integration limits. Use whenever rooftop or utility-scale PV, storage, or other DERs push a feeder into voltage rise, reverse power flow, thermal limits, or protection desensitization — or when the question is how much more DER a feeder can host. Triggers on "hosting capacity", "PV on this feeder", "voltage rise from solar", "reverse power flow", or "DER interconnection on distribution". Pairs naturally with OpenDSS and pandapower feeder studies.

Senior power-engineer playbook for frequency-performance problems. Use whenever studies or operations show low system inertia, poor frequency nadir, high RoCoF, weak primary frequency response, UFLS encroachment, or reserve shortfall after loss of the largest unit or HVDC import. Triggers on "frequency nadir", "RoCoF too high", "inertia too low", "UFLS risk", "primary frequency response", or "loss of largest unit". Distinct from dynamic-stability-mitigation, which handles damping and angle stability rather than frequency containment.

Senior power-engineer playbook for screening and mitigating the grid impact of a new generator, storage, or large-load interconnection. Use whenever the question is whether X MW can connect at a point of interconnection and what upgrades it needs. Triggers on "interconnection study", "system impact study", "POI", "can we connect this plant at bus Y", "short-circuit ratio", or "weak grid". Walks from steady-state screens through weak-grid and reactive checks to the binding constraint and its mitigation set.

Senior power-engineer playbook for excessive fault current and breaker over-duty. Use whenever a short-circuit study shows fault duty above interrupting ratings, or a new interconnection raises fault levels near equipment limits. Triggers on "fault duty", "breaker over-duty", "short-circuit current too high", "interrupting rating exceeded", or "fault MVA at this bus". Gives an ordered sequence from study verification through operational fixes to equipment upgrades.

Progressive-disclosure workflow for ANDES dynamic studies. Use whenever the user wants to run ANDES through PowerMCP for power flow, small-signal / eigenvalue analysis, or time-domain simulation — even when they just say "check the damping", "is this stable", "run a fault", or "look at the oscillation modes". Exposes a solved base case before eigenvalue screening and time-domain runs. Reach for this instead of answering ANDES dynamics questions unaided.

Progressive-disclosure workflow for OpenDSS distribution-feeder studies. Use whenever the user wants to compile a DSS model, solve a distribution circuit, inspect feeder bus voltages or power, sweep load multipliers, or run daily / harmonic studies through PowerMCP — even when they just say "solve this feeder", "check the voltages", or "run a daily profile". Exposes a solved base feeder before advanced scenarios. Reach for this instead of answering OpenDSS feeder questions unaided.

Progressive-disclosure workflow for pandapower power-system studies. Use whenever the user wants to load, build, or inspect a pandapower network, run AC power flow, check bus voltages or line and transformer loading, or screen N-1 contingencies — even when they just say "run a load flow", "check this case", "is anything overloaded", or name a case file like case39.json. Exposes a clean base-case solve before advanced outage studies. Reach for this instead of answering pandapower grid questions unaided.

Progressive-disclosure workflow for PowerWorld Simulator studies through PowerMCP. Use whenever the user wants to open a PowerWorld case, solve the base power flow, inspect flows or voltages, change model data, run contingency analysis, or pull sensitivity matrices (PTDF, LODF, Jacobian, Ybus) — even when they just say "solve this case", "run contingencies", or "give me the PTDF". Exposes base-case operations before contingencies and matrix analytics. Reach for this instead of answering PowerWorld questions unaided.

Progressive-disclosure workflow for PSLF transmission studies. Use whenever the user wants to open a PSLF case, solve the base power flow, check voltage or overload violations, edit the network (shunts, generators, branches), or run contingency analysis through PowerMCP — even when they just say "solve this case", "any violations", or "run N-1". Exposes base-case work before edits and contingencies. Reach for this instead of answering PSLF questions unaided.

Progressive-disclosure workflow for PSS/E studies through PowerMCP. Use whenever the user wants to open a PSS/E case, solve the base case, discover the right PSSPY command, or run targeted PSS/E automation — even when they just say "open this sav", "solve it", or "how do I change this in PSSE". Exposes the built-in base-case tools and PSSPY command lookup before generic API execution. Reach for this instead of answering PSS/E questions unaided.

Progressive-disclosure workflow for PyPSA studies. Use whenever the user wants to load or build a PyPSA network, inspect components or time series, run power flow, solve operational OPF, or run capacity-expansion / investment optimization — even when they just say "optimize the dispatch", "size the storage", "run an expansion", or hand over a netCDF/CSV network like case39.nc. Exposes network inspection and feasibility before large optimization, and operational optimization before investment. Reach for this instead of answering PyPSA questions unaided.

Use this skill for transmission power-system studies — AC/DC power flow, DC-OPF / AC-OPF / SCOPF, N-1 / N-2 contingency analysis, PTDF / LODF / OTDF sensitivities, NERC and AC Available Transfer Capability (ATC), SCED economic dispatch, and SCUC unit commitment. Also use for building or editing a transmission network (add / remove / scale buses, lines, transformers, generators, loads, storage). Use whenever the user references an IEEE benchmark case (case9, case14, case30, case57, case118, case300, market30) or IEEE 14-/30-/57-/118-/300-bus network, or asks to load a MATPOWER .m, PSS/E RAW, XIIDM, or CIM/CGMES file and run a steady-state study. Trigger on phrases like "power flow", "run OPF", "contingency analysis", "PTDF", "ATC", "economic dispatch", "unit commitment", "build a network", or "scale load by X%" — even if the user does not mention Surge by name. Not for transient-stability dynamics (route to ANDES) or harmonic / unbalanced distribution feeders (route to OpenDSS).

Senior power-engineer playbook for contingency violations. Use whenever N-1 or N-2 studies reveal voltage or thermal problems, binding contingencies, or post-outage islanding — including escalations from a tool skill's contingency run. Triggers on "N-1 violation", "worst contingency", "preventive vs corrective action", or "do we need a RAS". Moves from ranking contingencies to identifying preventive and corrective actions that cover a family of outages.

Senior power-engineer playbook for dynamic stability problems. Use whenever eigenvalue or time-domain studies show poor damping, transient angle instability, weak voltage recovery, or sustained oscillations in tools such as ANDES or PSS/E — including escalations from a tool skill's dynamic run. Triggers on "low damping", "unstable after the fault", "tune the PSS", or "voltage recovery too slow". Gives an ordered fix sequence across dispatch, controls, protection, and special schemes.

Senior power-engineer playbook for planning and operations optimization problems. Use whenever Egret or PyPSA studies are infeasible, reserve-deficient, congested, too expensive, or heavily curtailed — including escalations from a tool skill's OPF, unit-commitment, or expansion run. Triggers on "OPF infeasible", "not enough reserve", "too much curtailment", or "why is this so expensive". Gives corrective actions — data fixes, simpler screening solves, flexibility, congestion relief — rather than only reporting optimization output.

Senior power-engineer playbook for overloaded lines and transformers. Use whenever power-flow or contingency studies show loading above ratings — including escalations from a tool skill where branch loading exceeds 100% of its rating. Triggers on "line overloaded", "transformer above rating", "relieve congestion", or "redispatch to unload". Gives an operationally credible sequence of redispatch, topology, phase-shifter, and reinforcement actions rather than only flagging the overload.

Senior power-engineer playbook for voltage violations. Use whenever a base-case or contingency study shows low voltage, high voltage, weak reactive support, or tap exhaustion — including escalations from a tool skill where bus voltage falls below 0.95 pu or rises above 1.05 pu in PowerWorld, PSS/E, PSLF, OpenDSS, pandapower, PyPSA, or surge. Triggers on "voltage too low", "voltage too high", "add reactive support", or "buses out of limits". Moves past reporting into an ordered, validated mitigation sequence.

Progressive-disclosure workflow for Egret market and operations optimization. Use whenever the user wants to run DC-OPF, AC-OPF, or unit commitment through PowerMCP — even when they just say "what's the cheapest dispatch", "commit the units", "check for congestion", or "is this schedule feasible". Exposes the simplest credible optimization (DC-OPF) before escalating to AC-OPF or full unit commitment. Reach for this instead of answering Egret optimization questions unaided.

Progressive-disclosure workflow for LTSpice / PyLTSpice circuit simulation. Use whenever the user wants to create a netlist, run a SPICE transient or AC simulation, inspect traces, or debug LTSpice convergence through PowerMCP — even when they just say "simulate this circuit", "why won't this converge", or "plot the output". Exposes session creation and batch simulation before plotting or GUI steps. Reach for this instead of answering LTSpice questions unaided.