Grid Reliability and Capacity Utilization Methods: A Systematic Mapping of Research, Software Tools, and Industry Adoption

This study systematically maps scientific trends, software implementation, and user adoption related to methods and approaches for capacity utilization and grid reliability and identifies the main impediments in current practices and barriers in adopting advanced methods in Norwegian power grid companies. Unlike previous work, which typically focuses on individual methods or isolated surveys, this study links literature, software implementations and industry practices within a coherent framework. Empirical data are collected and analyzed in this study by combining classical structured literature review with NLP- and AI-based mapping of temporal research trends and by conducting an industry survey comprising 11 interviews and 24 questionnaire responses from 35 representatives of Norwegian grid companies. The review covers 32,980 papers, 321 identified methods and approaches, 47 software tools. Although 31.0% of the 271 methods have a level three software implementation and 50.9% of methods have at least level two implementation in two or more software tools, only 5.2% of the methods have been adopted by more than 33.3% while 80.1% are not used at all. Optimization, probabilistic and ML/AI methods are either not adopted or only partially adopted in stark contrast to the scientific community that focuses primarily on ML/AI methods. Probabilistic methods are adopted by the most innovative companies, but not by the majority. The main impediments reported by Norwegian users as moderate or critical barrier are time consuming and complicated approaches (54%), internal and external communication (54%), insufficient tool support (52%) and data quality issues (50%). This study provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of art in science and software tools and contrasts this with the actual user adoption and perceived barriers. These insights support strategic research planning, innovation strategies and software development and the proposed methodology may be used by organizations to assess their current adoption level and guide future research and innovation decisions.