Is Electrisim a PowerFactory alternative?

Electrisim is an affordable alternative for load flow, short circuit, arc flash, dynamics, and related studies using pandapower, OpenDSS, and ANDES. Results have been validated against commercial tools including PowerFactory-style workflows and independent university studies.

How does Electrisim pricing compare to DIgSILENT PowerFactory?

Electrisim starts at $10 per month for Personal cloud use, with Company plans at $40 per user per month and a free open-source edition. DIgSILENT PowerFactory is typically sold as a $20,000+ USD perpetual license (plus maintenance).

Can Electrisim match PowerFactory load flow results?

Electrisim's pandapower engine is continuously tested against commercial tools including PowerFactory. Comparison tutorials and dual-solver studies document agreement within engineering tolerances for many networks.

Does Electrisim support transient stability like PowerFactory?

Yes. Electrisim runs transient stability (time-domain) and eigenvalue / small-signal analysis via the ANDES engine, alongside load flow and short circuit on pandapower and OpenDSS.

Can I run Electrisim offline instead of a PowerFactory desktop install?

Yes. Deploy the free Community Edition from GitHub under Apache 2.0 for local or air-gapped use, or use the hosted cloud app in the browser with no local setup.

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A practical PowerFactory alternative

DIgSILENT PowerFactory is a gold-standard suite — and often priced for large utilities. Electrisim delivers core load flow, short circuit, arc flash, OPF, harmonics, and dynamics on open engines (pandapower, OpenDSS, and ANDES), from $10 per month.

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Validated against commercial software

Electrisim’s pandapower engine is continuously tested against DIgSILENT PowerFactory and PSS Sincal. We also publish dual-solver and independent university validation work.

PowerFactory-aligned tests

pandapower power flow and short-circuit results are validated against PowerFactory with strict tolerances on voltage, angles, and loading — continuous CI on every change.

pandapower validation →

Open-source vs PowerFactory

Our benchmark article walks through how open-source power flow tools compare with PowerFactory on real cases.

Read the benchmark →

Side-by-side tutorial

Watch how Electrisim results compare with PowerFactory on shared test cases — agreement within rounding for many networks.

Watch the tutorial →

Independent thesis study

Master’s thesis work at the University of Palermo compared Electrisim with Neplan across load flow and short circuit.

Read the study →

Electrisim vs PowerFactory-class tools

Same core planning and operations studies many engineers run in PowerFactory — without enterprise license lock-in.

Feature	Electrisim	Typical commercial suites (e.g. PowerFactory)
Monthly cost	$10 per month Personal $40 per user per month Company	$20,000+ USD perpetual license
Load flow	pandapower + OpenDSS
Short circuit (IEC 60909)
Arc flash (IEEE 1584-2018)		Varies / module
Transient stability & eigenvalues	ANDES
Optimal power flow & harmonics
Geographic map editor		Varies / add-on
Browser-based cloud		Typically desktop install
Open source / inspectable code	Apache 2.0
Cancel anytime		Multi-year contracts common

Core studies you can run instead of PowerFactory

Choose the engine per study — pandapower, OpenDSS, or ANDES. Full documentation →

Load flow — Newton-Raphson and more (pandapower), snapshot/daily/yearly (OpenDSS)
Short circuit — IEC 60909 (pandapower) and fault study on all buses (OpenDSS)
Arc flash — IEEE 1584-2018 incident energy, AFB, PPE
Motor starting — voltage dip for DOL / soft-start (steady-state & dynamic)
Transient stability — time-domain after faults / line trips (ANDES)
Eigenvalue analysis — small-signal stability and oscillatory modes (ANDES)
Optimal power flow — AC/DC constrained OPF with branch and bus limits
Protection coordination — fuses, relays, grading (beta)
Harmonics & time series — THD, filters, controllers in the loop
Reactive power capability (PQ) — envelope at the PCC vs grid-code curves

When Electrisim is the right PowerFactory alternative

Best fit for

Planning engineers who need validated load flow and short circuit daily
Teams that cannot justify full PowerFactory seat costs
Researchers who want inspectable engines (pandapower, OpenDSS, ANDES)
Cloud-first workflows without desktop installs

Still use PowerFactory when you need

Specialized DIgSILENT modules Electrisim does not yet cover 1:1
Utility or TSO mandates that name PowerFactory explicitly
Large legacy PowerFactory project databases

You can run routine studies in Electrisim and keep PowerFactory where a contract or a specialist module requires it.

PowerFactory alternative FAQ

For load flow, short circuit, arc flash, dynamics, and many planning studies — yes as a lower-cost option. Electrisim runs pandapower, OpenDSS, and ANDES in the browser. It is not a full clone of every PowerFactory module, but it covers the core workflows many engineers need daily.
Electrisim Personal is $10 per month, Company $40 per user per month, plus a free open-source Community Edition. DIgSILENT PowerFactory is typically a $20,000+ USD perpetual license (plus maintenance). See pricing.
The pandapower engine is continuously validated against commercial tools including PowerFactory. See our comparison tutorial and benchmark article.
Yes. Transient stability (time-domain) and eigenvalue / small-signal analysis run via ANDES. See the transient stability documentation.
Yes. Deploy the Community Edition from GitHub locally for air-gapped use, or use the browser cloud app with zero install.

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