Korea Power Exchange (KPX) organizes a session to present the development of the Power 

System Health Index (PSHI) and prognosis & diagnosis algorithm at the KPX headquarters in Seoul on Sept. 3.(photo: KPX) 

    Korea Power Exchange (KPX) has developed the Power System Health Index (PSHI), also known as the “Rainbow Index” and Predictive Diagnostic Algorithm for the first time in the world. 

The development of the PSHI Algorithm is designed to allow system control crews to take a glance at the real-time reliability levels of electricity systems in a comprehensive and intuitive fashion by monitoring them on a screen so that they can cope with an emergency situation more swiftly and effectively.

KPX held a session to present the development of the PSHI and prognosis & diagnosis algorithm at the KPX headquarters on Sept. 3 in which participants presented and discussed how PSHI has been changed and how system control crews can be alerted in the case of real-life situations, such as the latest shutdown of the Hanbit Nuclear Power Unit. 

In order to develop the technology, six months of feasibility research was followed by one year of development of the algorithm. A research team from Gyeongsang National University, led by Prof. Choi Jae-suk of the electricity department, a Korean authority on the development of smart monitoring technologies, and participated in by Daedeok-based process plant solution provider, BNF Technology, worked together on the development of the technology. Next January, a pilot project will be launched to have the latest development in place to connect the National Electricity Management System (EMS). 

As the 3-D visualization system’s various health areas were categorized into a form of a rainbow, the name ‘Rainbow Index’ was selected.

“Currently, there are seven displays monitoring the power grid at the Central Power Control Center, and it is not easy for system control crews to maintain the around-the-clock surveillance with unerring precision all year round,” said Chu Jun-young, head of the System Engineering Team of the Electricity System Department at KPX. “The innovative idea behind the latest development is integrating all screens into one. The idea originated from meeting a need: how can the electricity system be monitored on just one screen?”

Chu said he expects the latest development to plant the “first seeds of introducing an advanced electricity system in a decade.”

The conventional reliability of the electricity system is about expected health levels at the planning stage, but the latest PHIS algorithm is unprecedented because of real-time reliability of the power grid. KPX officials said the latest technologies will allow system control crews to be given intuitional signals in real time and in a direct manner, thus contributing to swifter and more stable operation of the electricity system.