PyRAMSES Installation

PyRAMSES (Python-based RApid Multithreaded Simulation of Electric power Systems) is a time-domain dynamic simulator for electric power systems. It provides a Python interface to the RAMSES simulation engine, enabling users to define test cases, run simulations, extract results, and perform post-processing-all within Python scripts or Jupyter notebooks.

PyRAMSES supports Windows and Linux for dynamic simulation (the bundled Helios power-flow engine additionally runs on macOS) and integrates with standard scientific Python libraries (NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib).

Installation

Install PyRAMSES and all recommended dependencies via pip:

pip install jupyter ipython pyramses

Required dependencies (matplotlib, scipy, numpy, and — on Windows/Linux — mkl) are installed automatically.

For a minimal installation (no plotting or notebook support):

pip install pyramses

Linux System Prerequisites

On Linux, the following system libraries must be installed before running PyRAMSES:

sudo apt install libopenblas0 libgfortran5 libgomp1

These packages provide:

Package	Purpose
libopenblas0	OpenBLAS BLAS/LAPACK routines used by the solver
libgfortran5	GNU Fortran runtime required by the Fortran components of RAMSES
libgomp1	OpenMP runtime for multi-core parallel execution

On most desktop Linux distributions these are already present. If pyramses fails to import with a shared-library error, install the packages above and retry.

MKL Dependencies

The simulator depends on the Intel Math Kernel Library (MKL) for LAPACK/BLAS and OpenMP. These are automatically installed as dependencies when installing via pip.

To verify MKL is available, run:

python -c "import numpy; numpy.show_config()"

Look for blas_mkl_info or lapack_mkl_info in the output confirming MKL is linked.

Optional: Gnuplot for Real-Time Plots

PyRAMSES can display observables in real-time during simulation using Gnuplot. This is particularly useful for long simulations to monitor progress.

Ubuntu / Debian

sudo apt-get install gnuplot-x11

Windows

Download and install from gnuplot.info. Make sure the installation directory is added to your system PATH.

Note

Gnuplot must be in the system PATH. You can check availability with pyramses.__runTimeObs__, which is True if Gnuplot was found at import time. If Gnuplot is not found, PyRAMSES will still work but runtime observable plots will be disabled.

Platform Support

Platform	Library	Notes
Windows	ramses.dll	Primary platform, full support
Linux	ramses.so	Full support (requires the system libraries above)

macOS is not supported: no RAMSES binary is bundled for it.

Next Steps

• API Reference, Full API documentation
• Examples, Practical usage examples