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About GAT

The Grid Analysis Toolkit

GAT (Grid Analysis Toolkit) is a high-performance power systems analysis tool built in Rust. It brings industrial-grade optimization, power flow, and reliability analysis to a single, dependency-free binary.

The Problem

Power systems analysis has traditionally required:

  • Expensive commercial software with per-seat licensing
  • Complex Python environments that break across updates
  • MATLAB dependencies that aren't portable or reproducible
  • Vendor lock-in with proprietary formats and APIs
  • Slow execution that makes iterative analysis painful

Meanwhile:

  • Researchers struggle to reproduce published results
  • Startups can't afford $15k/seat commercial licenses
  • Operators need air-gapped solutions without license servers
  • AI agents need deterministic, fast physics engines

The Solution

GAT reimagines power systems tools for the modern era:

🚀 Fast

Built in Rust with native performance. AC-OPF on 12k-bus systems in milliseconds, not minutes.

📦 Portable

Single binary. No dependencies. No Python environments. No license servers. Works behind firewalls.

🗄️ Modern Data Stack

Arrow/Parquet-first. Drop results straight into Polars, DuckDB, or Pandas. No parsing text files.

🤖 Agent-Ready

Structured outputs, deterministic behavior, and MCP server integration make GAT the perfect physics engine for AI.

💰 Accessible

Free for academic and personal use. Affordable commercial licensing for startups. No vendor lock-in.

🔓 Source-Available

Review the code. Understand the algorithms. Verify the math. Contribute improvements.

Philosophy

Research-First

GAT was built for power systems researchers who were tired of:

  • Environments that break between paper submissions
  • Results that can't be reproduced
  • Licenses that expire mid-thesis
  • Tools that don't match published algorithms

Academic use is free forever. No strings attached.

Production-Ready

While many academic tools are prototypes, GAT is designed for production:

  • Industrial solver backends (CBC, HiGHS, Clarabel)
  • Comprehensive error handling and validation
  • Deterministic, reproducible results
  • Extensive testing and CI/CD
  • Professional documentation

Open Development

Development happens in the open:

  • Public GitHub repository
  • Issue tracking and discussions
  • Community contributions welcome
  • Transparent roadmap

Technology Stack

  • Language: Rust (for speed, safety, and portability)
  • Solvers: CBC, HiGHS, Clarabel (open-source LP/QP/SOCP)
  • Data: Apache Arrow, Parquet (columnar, zero-copy)
  • CLI: clap (full-featured command-line interface)
  • TUI: Ratatui (terminal user interface for exploration)
  • Platforms: Linux, macOS, Windows (cross-platform from day one)

Features

Power Flow Analysis

  • DC Power Flow - Fast linearized analysis
  • AC Power Flow - Full nonlinear Newton-Raphson
  • Solver selection, tolerance control, Parquet output

Optimal Power Flow

  • DC-OPF - Economic dispatch with DC approximation
  • AC-OPF - Full nonlinear optimization
  • Piecewise generator costs, transmission limits

Reliability Analysis

  • LOLE (Loss of Load Expectation)
  • EUE (Expected Unserved Energy)
  • Scenario-based analysis

Contingency Analysis

  • N-1 Screening - Fast contingency enumeration
  • Performance metrics per contingency
  • Parallelized evaluation

Time Series

  • Multi-period optimization
  • Load forecasting integration
  • Scenario analysis

Domain-Specific

  • ADMS - Advanced Distribution Management
  • DERMS - Distributed Energy Resources
  • VVO - Volt-VAR Optimization
  • FLISR - Fault Location, Isolation, Service Restoration

Use Cases

Academia

  • Reproducible research
  • Thesis and dissertation work
  • Teaching power systems courses
  • Publishing verifiable results

Startups

  • Building energy optimization platforms
  • DER aggregation and VPP management
  • Grid planning tools
  • Analysis-as-a-service

Operators

  • Internal planning studies
  • Reliability assessment
  • Scenario modeling
  • Air-gapped deployments

AI/Agents

  • Physics-based constraint checking
  • LMP and OPF for energy agents
  • Deterministic grid simulations
  • Tool-use compatible outputs

Project Status

Current Version: v0.5.7

Status: Production-ready, actively developed

Test Coverage: 500+ tests across core, CLI, and TUI

Platforms: Linux, macOS (Windows support in progress)

Team

GAT is developed and maintained by Tom Wilson with contributions from the open-source community.

Contributing

We welcome contributions! See our Contributing Guide for details on:

  • Code contributions
  • Documentation improvements
  • Bug reports and feature requests
  • Testing and feedback

Licensing

GAT is licensed under the PolyForm Shield License 1.0.0:

  • ✅ Free for academic, personal, and internal business use
  • 💼 Commercial licensing available for SaaS, consulting, and competitive use
  • 🔓 Source-available for transparency and verification

See our License & Terms page for complete details.

Roadmap

See our project roadmap for upcoming features and long-term plans.

Near-term priorities:

  • Enhanced TUI with real-time visualization
  • Additional solver backends (Gurobi, MOSEK)
  • Improved documentation and examples
  • Extended domain workflows (VVO, FLISR)
  • Performance optimizations for larger systems

Community

Contact

For commercial licensing, partnerships, or general inquiries:

GAT: The grid analysis toolkit researchers always wished existed.