{"id":1170952,"date":"2026-05-06T17:42:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T00:42:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/?post_type=msr-research-item&p=1170952"},"modified":"2026-05-08T09:45:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T16:45:54","slug":"building-power-grid-models-from-open-data-a-complete-pipeline-from-openstreetmap-to-optimal-power-flow","status":"publish","type":"msr-research-item","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/publication\/building-power-grid-models-from-open-data-a-complete-pipeline-from-openstreetmap-to-optimal-power-flow\/","title":{"rendered":"Building Power Grid Models from Open Data: A Complete Pipeline from OpenStreetMap to Optimal Power Flow"},"content":{"rendered":"

Access to realistic transmission grid models is essential for power systems research, yet detailed network data in the United States remains restricted under critical-infrastructure regulations. We present a pipeline that constructs complete, OPF-solvable transmission network models entirely from publicly available data. The five-stage pipeline (1) extracts power infrastructure from OpenStreetMap via a local Overpass API instance, (2) reconstructs bus-branch topology through voltage inference, line merging, and transformer detection, (3) estimates electrical parameters using voltage-class lookup tables calibrated with U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) plant-level data, (4) allocates hourly demand from EIA-930 to individual buses using US Census population as a spatial proxy, and (5) solves both DC and AC optimal power flow using\u00a0PowerModels.jl\u00a0with a progressive relaxation strategy that automatically loosens constraints on imprecise models. We validate the pipeline on all 48 contiguous US states and six multi-state regions, including the full Western (5,076 buses) and Eastern (21,697 buses) Interconnections. Of the 48 single-state models, 42 (88%) converge at the strictest relaxation level for AC-OPF at peak hour and 44 (92%) off-peak. Dispatch costs (median $22\/MWh) and system losses (median 1.0%) are consistent with real wholesale-market outcomes. The pipeline relies exclusively on open data sources, enabling reproducible grid analysis without proprietary data. All 54 models (48 single-state and 6 multi-state) are publicly released at\u00a0this URL<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Access to realistic transmission grid models is essential for power systems research, yet detailed network data in the United States remains restricted under critical-infrastructure regulations. We present a pipeline that constructs complete, OPF-solvable transmission network models entirely from publicly available data. The five-stage pipeline (1) extracts power infrastructure from OpenStreetMap via a local Overpass API 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