Geo-Information

Is Power
By Jairo Quirós-Tortós, Gustavo Valverde,
Andrés Argüello, and Luis (Nando) Ochoa
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPE.2016.2637158
Date of publication: 1 March 2017

48 ieee power & energy magazine 1540-7977/17©2017IEEE march/april 2017

 E
Economies of scale, incentives, and technological
advances have made photovoltaic (PV) systems more affordable and common
in developed nations. In Latin America, however, cost and regulation are still
barriers for their widespread adoption, particularly by residential and commer-
cial customers. In Costa Rica, there has only recently been interest in rooftop
PV systems thanks to a major pilot project carried out from 2010 to 2015 by
the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad,
ICE), the administrator of the generation, the transmission system operator, and
one of the eight distribution network operators (DNOs) who also supply electric-
ity. The hundreds of installations involved in this project created the momentum
needed by the local emerging PV industry to push for changes in the regulatory
framework and demonstrate the economic benefits, given the relatively high
electricity prices. Although this project represented only a modest PV penetra-
tion, ICE recognized that the ability of distribution circuits to host rooftop PV
systems should be adequately assessed. This prompted the Ministry of Energy
and Environment to create a new and important requirement for Costa Rican
DNOs: the generation-hosting capacity of distribution circuits should be quanti-
fied considering a comprehensive set of studies, with most of them requiring
detailed network models.
The diversity in the installed capacity of rooftop PV ­systems (from a few to
hundreds of kilowatts), as well as in the voltages they are connected to (from
low to medium voltages), means that DNOs in Costa Rica—and many others
around the world—need to have network studies that not only cover large areas
but also adequately model small- and medium-scale customers. To success-
fully achieve this, Costa Rican DNOs have collaborated with the University of
Costa Rica in a pioneering project to develop advanced open-source simulation
tools that integrate distribution network analysis software and data from mul-
tiple geographical information systems (GISs) that include valuable information
image licensed by ingram publishing

about distribution network components and customers stored by DNOs ranging

from sun irradiance to socioeconomic statistics.
This article reviews the different aspects to be considered when integrat-
ing GIS data sources and distribution network analysis software. The practi-
cal challenges involving data errors and modelling, the adopted solutions,
and, ultimately, the open-source tools developed for the Costa Rican DNOs
employing Quantum GIS (QGIS), OpenDSS, and Python are described. The
use of these tools, created to assess the impacts of PV systems, are illustrated
on a real, large-scale distribution network located in the metropolitan area
of Costa Rica.

The Greener, the Better

Using Geographical Costa Rica is a country in Central America with
almost 5 million inhabitants. Its electricity sector
Information Systems to is characterized by a highly renewable genera-
tion mix and a national electricity access above
Assess Rooftop Photovoltaics 99% provided by the eight DNOs (see Figure 1 for
their locations), all regulated by the Regulatory
in Costa Rica Authority of Public Services (ARESEP).
Costa Rica has been committed to generat-
ing electricity from renewable energy sources,
particularly hydro. By 2015, approximately
80% of the total installed capacity (exceeding 3 GW) was from renewable
technologies (see Table 1). In terms of energy, 99% of the total generation
(10.6 TWh) was produced from clean energy sources: 75% hydro, 10% wind,
13% geothermal, 1% fossil fuel, and about 1% other technologies (biomass
and solar).

march/april 2017 ieee power & energy magazine 49


Legend
CNFL
COOPEALFARO
JASEC
COOPESANTOS
ESPH
COOPELESCA
COOPEGUANACASTE
ICE
50 0 50 100 150
figure 1. The license areas of DNOs in Costa Rica.
For many years, this generation was owned and admin-
istered by ICE, complemented by small private generators
and a few utility-scale distributed generators. However, this
has changed due to the increasing penetration of self-gener-
ation units installed by residential, commercial, and indus-
trial customers who have found an attractive opportunity to
replace some or all the energy sold by the DNOs.
Costa Rica took its first steps in distributed generation
back in 2010, when ICE launched a five-year pilot project
expecting to host up to 10 MW for self-generation units in its
license area. The project offered very attractive conditions,
for a fixed period of 15 years, to customers who decided to
install a generating system in their premises. These customers
were exempted from installation
costs or access fees, as they were
covered by the DNO.
The pilot project was designed
to be a living laboratory with the
goal of producing commercial and
technical understanding for ICE
personnel. By the end of the proj-
ect in 2015, 366 customers were
involved: a total of 3,050 kW effec-
tively connected to the grid and
8,220 kW awaiting for the connec-
tion permits. Due to the favorable
weather conditions in Costa Rica,
rooftop PV systems were the most
attractive technology for self-gener-
ation—as it can be seen in Table 2.
This pilot project not only
helped the DNO gain technical and
com­­mercial experience but also
strengthened, at the time, the in-
cipient rooftop PV market and in-
creased the number of vendors. The
200 km penetration level and concentra-
tion of PVs were so low that it was
not possible to quantify or witness
any network impact caused by the
new installations.
Although not part of the original plan, the pilot project awak-
ened the interest of customers served by other DNOs. In par-
ticular, the National Company of Power and Light (Compañía
Nacional de Fuerza y Luz, CNFL—a DNO in the metropoli-
tan area of Costa Rica) faced a growing number of customers
requesting permission to install rooftop PV systems (see Fig-
ure 2). Although commercial conditions were not as good as the
ones offered to customers part of ICE’s pilot project, the local
media and PV vendors played a major role in promoting the
technology all over the country. This pushed ARESEP (the regu-
lator) and the Ministry of Energy and Environment to create new
rules and modify existing regulations to account for new actors in
the Costa Rican electricity scenario: the self-generators.

table 1. Generation-installed capacity table 2. Results of the pilot project

per technology (2015). carried out by ICE.

Technology Installed Capacity (%) Number of

Technology Customers Total Kilowatts
Solar 0.03
Solar 360 6,758.85
Wind 9.07
Solar + Wind 2 5.38
Hydro 63.09
Biomass 1.30 Biomass 1 4,500

Geothermal 7.09 Wind 1 2

Fossils 19.42 Hydro 2 7.5

50 ieee power & energy magazine march/april 2017

 The power of a GIS lies in its ability to use many types
of data related to the same geographical area, i.e.,
combining different data sets within a single platform.

Accounting for self-generation was, however, not as
smooth and straightforward as initially expected by the gen-
eral public and the Costa Rican Association of Solar Energy.
It took about three years of consultation processes and regu-
lation amendments before the current set of rules was finally
published by the Ministry of Energy and Environment,
along with the grid access fees defined by ARESEP. These
access fees were created to cover the network’s fixed costs,
which are shared by all customers.
Geo-Information Is Power
The power of a GIS lies in its ability to use many types of
data related to the same geographical area, i.e., combin-
ing different data sets within a single platform. In the last
decade, Costa Rican DNOs have been using GISs to m ­ anage
­the geo-referenced data of network components (e.g., loca-
tion and capacity of transformers and length, spacing, and
type of conductors) and customers (e.g., connection point,
type and average monthly energy consumption). For distri-
bution network analysis purposes, however, this data has
only been adopted to manually update medium-voltage
(MV) network models developed in a separate commercial
software package. Low-voltage (LV) circuits and, therefore,
the corresponding customers have never been modeled in
detail. While this simplified approach has been effective so
far, the impact assessment from rooftop PV systems con-
nected to different voltages requires modeling the circuits
in a more sophisticated way. In addition to the LV and MV
assets being modeled simultaneously, customer consump-
tion and location data can be exploited to produce realistic
daily load profiles. The sociodemographics of the area can
also be derived to estimate the potential sizes and locations
of rooftop PV systems. Finally, PV generation profiles can
be produced by combining the latter with geo-referenced
irradiance from meteorological databases. Placing all these
large data sets in a single GIS platform, and then integrating
it with a distribution network analysis software, is not trivial
and requires clearly defined procedures.

Legend
Distributed Generation (kW)
0.2–1.6
1.6–3.5
3.5–5.5
5.5–7.6
7.6–12.7
12.7–22.0
22.0–53.0
53.0–64.8
Concession Area
Canton

figure 2. The location of rooftop PV systems in CNFL (as of early 2015).

march/april 2017 ieee power & energy magazine 51

 High Resolution,
Tool 1 Realistic Profiles
Data Tool 2
Automated Manual Translation to Tool 3
Combined
Network GIS Error GIS Error Electricals
GIS Detailed
Correction Correction Models
Network
Studies
Meteorological Creation and
Allocation of Tool 4
Load and
Generation Visualization
Socioeconomic Profiles of Results

figure 3. The integration of a GIS and network analysis in a single platform.

Integrating GISs and Network Analysis software OpenDSS, developed by the U.S.-based Electric
A series of steps is needed to successfully integrate GISs Power Research Institute, was used to model and analyze dis-
and distribution network analysis software (see Figure 3; the tribution networks; it was selected due to its flexibility and
tools will be explained in a later section). As each database the possibility of interacting with other software through the
comes with different types of errors, from connectivity to component object model (COM) interface. Within this step,
nonstandardized labeling and missing data, the first step is a simple but important socioeconomic assessment is also
to identify and, whenever possible, automatically correct carried out, using the monthly energy consumption and geo-
them. In general, engineering criteria is crucial to define graphical location of customers. This allows for the creation
an acceptable level of accuracy when fixing these errors. of realistic load profiles and determining whether customers
The next step is to combine the data from the correspond- would install rooftop PV systems (the larger the consumption,
ing multiple sources to have a single point for data retrieval the more likely the installation). The most adequate size for
and thus facilitate exchanges. To create the electrical models the PV installation and the corresponding generation profile
of the circuits, characterize the electricity demand, and pro- can also be determined with this data. The last step in the inte-
duce the PV generation profiles, the University of Costa Rica gration of GISs and distribution network analysis software is
used the project data corresponding to the network assets and to make QGIS and OpenDSS talk to each other to carry out
customers (from DNOs), solar irradiance (from the meteo- specific network studies, which can range from snapshots to
rological office), and socioeconomic statistics (from the­ daily and yearly power flows. The open-source programming
latest national census). These databases were combined language Python was used to integrate QGIS and OpenDSS
using QGIS, one of the most popular free and open-source as well as to drive their tasks. Thanks to the visualization of
tools for geographical systems and fully compatible with GIS software, the corresponding results can then be presented
commercial software used by the Costa Rican DNOs. in a way that is intuitive and easy to understand for both tech-
The translation from GISs to electrical models then takes nical and nontechnical people.
place and depends entirely on the adopted distribution net-
work analysis software (each of them has its own way to define Practical Challenges
electrical models). In this project, the free and open-source A key aspect in the integration of GIS data is to ensure that
all layers use the same projected coordinate system. It is also
critical that the GIS file formats are compatible among them-
Transformer Disconnected
selves; raster, vector grid, and geographic data files are com-
mon. However, the most challenging aspect is that the GISs
of DNOs and of other organizations are prone to human and
technical errors, which can be associated with the data itself
or the geographical position of objects. Data errors include
components with incorrect or missing attributes, the nonstan-
MV Line Load Disconnected
LV Line dardized labeling of components, and the incorrect assigna-
Transformer LV Network Disconnected
tion of phases. For instance, in the GIS data of Costa Rican
Load DNOs, transformers were often found to have capacities equal
to 0 kVA while conductors of the same type were labeled dif-
figure 4. Typical errors in the GIS data. ferently. Three-phase segments were sometimes found to be

52 ieee power & energy magazine march/april 2017

 Errors related to the geographical position of objects
bring a different challenge, ensuring that the physical
connectivity of any electrical element is reflected in the GIS.
fed by a single-phase branch. In general, these and similar
data errors can be mostly solved manually using filters, typi-
cal data, and the engineering knowledge of the DNO.
Errors related to the geographical position of objects
bring a different challenge: ensuring that the physical con-
nectivity of any electrical element is reflected in the GIS. For
instance, differences in the coordinates of loads and service
cables, transformers and MV lines/cables, and end points of
connected segments of lines/cables are common errors. To il-
lustrate this, Figure 4 shows the disconnection of a load from
the service cable, of a distribution transformer from the LV
circuit, and of two LV line segments. Given the volume of the
data, solving these issues requires not only automatic but so-
phisticated approaches that exploit the topological character-
istics of distribution networks. To tackle this, the University
of Costa Rica adopted a series of rules that use kdtree (a data
structure to organize and manipulate spatial data) and graph
theory-based algorithms to search for disconnected electrical
elements in the GIS and to reconnect them whenever pos-
sible. Errors in the order of millimeters were common in the
analyzed GIS data from Costa Rican DNOs.
Finally, it is important to highlight that the creation of
OpenDSS models (or any other software package) from GIS
data requires defining the electrical characteristics of the
network components (e.g., impedances of conductors and
transformers). This information, however, is not normally
available in the GIS of Costa Rican DNOs, and it needs to
be extracted from other databases (e.g., from typical data or
manufacturer data sheets). Depending on the type of net-
work studies to be carried out, additional information might
be needed. For instance, the short circuit capacity at the sub-
stations—critical in fault analyses—were not in the GIS and
were requested from the DNOs.
Tools in Action
As previously mentioned, in early 2016 the Ministry of Energy
and Environment requested all DNOs to carry out detailed net-
work studies to identify the distributed generation hosting capac-
ity of the circuits. This led to a collaboration between the DNOs
and the University of Costa Rica to develop a platform that inte-
grates the corresponding GIS with distribution network analysis
software. This platform is comprised of the four tools presented
as blocks in Figure 3 and described in detail below. These tools
were developed with QGIS, OpenDSS, and Python and designed
to assist DNOs with data correction, modeling, network studies,
and result visualization. Prior to the use of these tools, users are
required to combine all network, meteorological, and socioeco-
march/april 2017 ieee power & energy magazine 53
nomic data within one single QGIS project and enable the COM
interface in QGIS. Although the tools are run sequentially, the
correction and modeling tools are necessary only the first time
the data are being processed. The network analysis and visual-
ization tools are run as many times as the required studies.
✔✔ Tool 1—GIS data correction: This tool detects com-
mon errors in network data and corrects the ones that
can be resolved without user intervention. The exact lo-
cation and type of errors that could not be automatically
solved are reported so that users can manually modify
the GIS data accordingly. This tool will be needed only
when the network data has not been corrected before;
multiple runs will not solve more errors.
✔✔ Tool 2—Translating GISs to electrical models: This
tool uses advanced algorithms to connect and produce
the corresponding models of distribution transform-
ers, MV and LV lines, and loads. For each customer,
the tool creates and assigns a time-series load profile
using the corresponding location and monthly en-
ergy consumption. Given that the demand in Costa
Rica changes primarily from weekdays to weekends
(seasonal changes are limited, and hence the demand
varies little from one month to the other), only one
profile for weekdays and one for weekends is pro-
duced. To create these profiles, the tool uses a statis-
tical characterization of demand derived from power
quality monitoring data of more than 1,000 residential
and 400 industrial/commercial customers nationwide
collected by ARESEP in collaboration with the Uni-
versity of Costa Rica. Tool 2 also models the exist-
ing PV systems, provided a GIS layer with location,
capacity, and type of panel (e.g., standard, thin-film,
or premium) is available (Costa Rican DNOs are man-
dated to store this information). The creation of these
files is further explained in the article “Distribution
Network Model Builder for OpenDSS in Open Source
GIS Software.” The input data are the corrected GIS
layers of the circuit (resulting from Tool 1). This tool is
needed only once and when the network model has not
been created before; multiple runs will not produce
different models.
✔✔ Tool 3—Distribution network analyzer: This tool
integrates OpenDSS with QGIS. Crucially, it allows
more PV systems to be added to the network for car-
rying out impact studies with higher penetration levels
from the existing one so that eventually the hosting ca-
pacity of the circuit can be quantified. For this, the user
 introduces the PV penetration level (in kilowatts) and
the tool defines the location and optimal capacity of
PV systems based on an economic assessment. The re-
port released by the Ministry of Energy and Environ-
Legend ment details this economic evaluation. The input data
Substation of this OpenDSS-based distribution network analyzer
MV Line correspond to the electrical models created using Tool 2
MV/LV Transformer
as well as the active and reactive power demanded by
LV Line
the circuit (information that is also provided by the lo-
cal DNO). The latter is used in a load allocation al-
gorithm implemented as part of this third tool and in
which the demand of the circuit is matched with that
of the loads plus losses. This tool can be run as many
times as needed to assess each of the impact studies
and PV penetrations of interest. Currently the tool can
500 0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 m run snapshot, daily, yearly and harmonic power flows,
as well as short circuit studies. The corresponding re-
sults are stored as layers in QGIS so that they can be
figure 5. A real distribution network. used by the visualization tool.
✔✔ Tool 4—Visualization of impacts: The fourth tool
enables DNOs to visualize the results of the impact
studies within QGIS, making the identification of
3,000 lines and buses with problems easy and efficient. So
far, a few different ways to visualize results have been
2,500
implemented: color-based ranking of bus voltages and
3,000
2,000 line loading, heat maps for identifying areas with volt-
2,500 age and/or line loading problems, the animation of
Number of Customers

1,500
2,000
results through a defined period, and element-specific
1,000 pop-up windows with further results (e.g., active and
1,500 reactive power, loading). This tool can be used im-
500
1,000 mediately after Tool 3 to visualize the corresponding
0 new results.
500
0
0
0
0
0

1, 0
1, 0
1, 0
1, 0
2, 0
0

To increase the acceptability of the tools by Costa Rican

20
40
60
80
00
20
40
60
80
00
1,

0 DNOs, a user-friendly graphical interface was designed for

each of them. In addition, the open-source nature of the tools
2, 0
4, 0
0

8, 0
10 00
12 0
14 00
16 0
18 00
00
00
00
00

0
0
,0
,0
,0
,0
,0

makes possible the implementation of further improvements

6,

kWh per Month and/or changes to meet specific requirements of the DNOs.
(a) The tools are currently being used in different types of dis-
3,000 tribution networks, from rural to urban, so their effective-
ness in solving most of the particularities of Costa Rican
2,500
3,000 networks is constantly being enhanced.
2,500
2,000 To illustrate the use of the tools, the large urban network
Number of Customers

presented in Figure 5 will be used. It supplies over 5,000

1,500
2,000 customers (MV and LV) and is located within the conces-
1,000 sion area of CNFL. The first tool, which uses as input only
1,500
500
the GIS data related to the distribution network, solved all
1,000 connectivity issues and reported all transformers with inap-
0 propriate capacities (0 kVA), which were manually changed
500
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
based on CNFL practices. The corrected data was then com-
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 bined with the meteorological (i.e., solar irradiance) and so-
kW Peak of PV System cioeconomic data to produce the combined GIS data, which
(b) then serve as input to the electrical models.
The second tool translated the 34.5-kV distribution cir-
figure 6. Histograms of (a) energy consumption and (b) cuit available in the GIS to an OpenDSS model. This model
defined PV system capacity. contains 1,638 MV buses, 827 MV line sections, 204 MV/LV

54 ieee power & energy magazine march/april 2017

 5
1.1
~12% Energy
4.5 Reduction 1.08
1.06 Upper Limit
Active Power (MW)

4
1.04

Voltage (p.u.)
3.5
1.02
3 1
1.26-MW Reduction
2.5 0.98

Without PV 0.96
2
With PV 0.94 Lower Limit
1.5 0.92
0

0
:0

:0

:0

:0

:0

:0

:0

:0

:0

:0

:0

:0

:0

:0

:0

:0

:0

:0
00

03

06

09

12

15

18

21

00

00

03

06

09

12

15

18

21

00
Time of the Day Time of the Day

figure 7. Circuit demand without and with 1.5 MW of PV figure 8. Daily voltages at customer connection points
systems (during a May weekend). (during a May weekend).

transformers, 11,174 LV buses, 11,053 LV line sections, and graphically displaying the daily loading of the main trans-
6,078 LV loads. According to the GIS, there are 24 km of former (Figure 7) and all the daily bus voltages (Figure 8)
MV line sections and 87.49 km of LV line sections. For so the DNO can quickly see the effects of the analyzed PV
each type of day (weekday/weekend), Tool 2 then created penetration. In this circuit, the penetration of 1,500 kW in PV
and assigned load profiles to customers in the network based systems reduces the daily energy consumption by approxi-
on their average monthly energy consumption available in mately 12% (from 79 to 69 MWh) and the demand at noon
the GIS of Costa Rican DNOs. Figure 6(a) shows the con- by 28% (from 4.5 to 3.24 MW). In terms of voltages, as can be
sumption histogram for this circuit. No PV systems were seen in Figure 8, some customers experience voltages above
connected to this circuit. Using a representative weekend in the upper limit (1.05 p.u.) around midday, when PV systems
May, Figure 7 illustrates the total active power profile of the are generating the most. During this period, this figure also
network (case without PVs). shows some customers with voltages below the lower limit
The third tool then ran a daily power flow to quantify (0.95 p.u.), which is of significant use to the DNO and high-
the impacts from PV systems. The DNO needs to define the lights that not only voltage rise issues should be addressed.
PV penetration and the day to be
investigated. For illustration pur-
poses, a penetration of 1,500 kW
is adopted here (approximately
30% of the peak demand). Tool
3 uses the energy consumption
and solar irradiance to assess
which customers are more likely
to install a PV system based on
economic grounds. It was found
that 486 customers (about 8% in PV
the circuit) would have to install a Overvoltage
PV systems to make the 1,500-kW
penetration feasible. Figure 6(b)
shows the distribution of the cor-
responding individual capacities.
Finally, the tool uses the chosen
day to produce realistic PV pro-
files for those customers. The
resulting total net active power
profile is shown Figure  7 (case
with PVs). Tool 3 then runs the figure 9. Buses with voltages above the upper limit at noon (during a May
daily power flow and finishes by weekend).

march/april 2017 ieee power & energy magazine 55

 One key aspect to quantify these effects in a much
more realistic way was the use of socioeconomic
data when locating and sizing PV systems.
Finally, Tool 4 is executed to visualize the different prob-
lems that might be caused by 1,500 kW of PV systems in this
circuit. A summary of the results is reported via the log mes-
sage panel in QGIS showing the number of customers with
problems (3.75% in this case) as well as the number of over-
loaded lines (four in MV) and MV/LV transformers (one). Al-
though these impacts can be considered minor, they represent
a bottleneck (i.e., above the hosting capacity) unless the DNO
takes actions to solve the corresponding issues. To further un-
derstand the nature and location of the impacts, DNOs can use
the heat map and color-based ranking features to visualize ar-
eas with problems at specific times of the day. For instance,
Figure 9 shows in red the buses with voltages above 1.06 p.u.
at noon (color-based ranking feature) in which a cluster of cus-
tomers with problems has been highlighted. The multiple PV
installations, some of which have relatively high capacities (up
to 20 kW), considered in that particular LV feeder was the re-
sult of the economic assessment and is aligned with what also
happens in different parts of the world: more affluent custom-
ers with high energy consumption are more likely to afford
and benefit from PV systems. This also demonstrates the value
to DNOs in combining GIS information to adequately assess
future PV adoption. Indeed, the results will vary significantly
in other circuits as they will depend on the corresponding so-
cioeconomic characteristics of the customers.
Supporting Future Smart Grids
This article discussed some of the practical challenges when
integrating GIS databases from Costa Rican DNOs and
other organizations with distribution network analysis soft-
ware to assess the impacts of rooftop PV systems. One key
aspect to quantify these effects in a much more realistic way
was the use of socioeconomic data (energy consumption and
national census data) when locating and sizing PV systems.
In the short to medium terms, the modeling and analysis
tools will be adapted to cater to smart meter data so even
more realistic assessments can be undertaken. This impact
analysis tool will also incorporate aspects related to power
quality and the coordination of protection devices.
The use of integrated GISs and network analysis software
will help DNOs in adequately assessing the impacts of other
low-carbon technologies. For instance, for electric vehicles,
DNOs could also use transport data as well as the location
of strategic points (e.g., commercial and leisure areas). Fur-
thermore, solutions can also be explored. The network analy-
ses component can incorporate smart grid schemes that,
for instance, involve the use of smart inverters, the active
56 ieee power & energy magazine march/april 2017
management of network elements (e.g., on-load tap chang-
ers), and electric vehicle management. In fact, DNOs in Costa
Rica are now interested in extending the existing platform to
cater to the optimal allocation of fast charging stations for
electric vehicles as well as to investigate solutions to improve
the operation of distribution networks.
The collaboration among the Costa Rican DNOs, the
Ministry of Energy and Environment, and the University of
Costa Rica has demonstrated the tangible benefits that can
be achieved when industry and academia join forces. The
positive feedback received from DNOs and the ongoing
improvements are likely to result in a standardized proce-
dure in which Costa Rican DNOs will be required to use the
developed tools to carry out network impact assessments.
For Further Reading
B. Meehan, GIS for Enhanced Electric Utility Performance.
Boston, MA: Artech House, 2013.
I. J. Ramírez-Rosado, L. A. Fernandez-Jimenez, C. Mon-
teiro, V. Miranda, E. Garcia-Garrido, and P.J. Zorzano-
Santamaria, “Powerful planning tools,” IEEE Power Energy
Mag., vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 56–63, Mar./Apr. 2005.
P. Quesada, A. Argüello, J. Quirós-Tortós, and G. Val-
verde, “Distribution network model builder for OpenDSS in
open source GIS software” in Proc. IEEE PES Transmission
and Distribution Conf., Morelia, Latin America, Sept. 2016,
pp. 1–6.
G. Valverde, J. D. Lara, A. Lobo, J. D. Rojas, A. Arguello
and C. Montiel, “Techno-economic analysis of distributed
generation in CNFL (in Spanish),” Tech. Rep., Ministry of
Energy and Environment, Costa Rica, 2015.
R. González, A. Argüello, G. Valverde, and J. Quirós-
Tortós, “OpenDSS based distribution network analyzer in
open source GIS environment,” in Proc. IEEE PES Trans-
mission and Distribution Conf., Morelia, Latin America,
Sept. 2016, pp. 1–6.
Biographies
Jairo Quirós-Tortós is with the University of Costa Rica,
Costa Rica.
Gustavo Valverde is with the University of Costa Rica,
Costa Rica.
Andrés Argüello is with the University of Costa Rica,
Costa Rica.
Luis (Nando) Ochoa is with The University of Mel-
bourne, Australia, and The University of Manchester, United
Kingdom. p&e