Intervention policies against COVID-19 have caused large-scale disruptions globally, and led to a series of pattern changes in the power system operation. Analyzing these pandemic-induced patterns is imperative to identify the potential risks and impacts of this extreme event. With this purpose, we developed an open-access data hub (COVID-EMDA+), an open-source toolbox (CoVEMDA), and a few evaluation methods to explore what the U.S. power systems are experiencing during COVID-19. These resources could be broadly used for research, policy making, or educational purposes. Technically, our data hub harmonizes a variety of raw data such as generation mix, demand profiles, electricity price, weather observations, mobility, confirmed cases and deaths. Several support methods and metrics are then implemented in our toolbox, including baseline estimation, regression analysis, and scientific visualization. Based on these, we conduct three empirical studies on the U.S. power systems and markets to introduce some new solutions and unexpected findings. This conveys a more complete picture of the pandemic’s impacts, and also opens up several attractive topics for future work. Python, Matlab source codes, and user manuals are all publicly shared on a Github repository.

Machine learning, with a dramatic breakthrough in recent years, is showing great potential to upgrade the power system optimization toolbox. Understanding the strength and limitation of machine learning approaches is crucial to answer when and how to integrate them in various power system optimization tasks. This paper pays special attention to the coordination between machine learning approaches and optimization models, and carefully evaluates to what extent such data-driven analysis may benefit the rule-based optimization. A series of typical references are selected and categorized into four kinds: the boundary parameter improvement, the optimization option selection, the surrogate model and the hybrid model. This taxonomy provides a novel perspective to understand the latest research progress and achievements. We further discuss several key challenges and provide an in-depth comparison on the features and designs of different categories. Deep integration of machine learning approaches and optimization models is expected to become the most promising technical trend.