SUMMER INTERNSHIP DEVELOPS A DASHBOARD FOR POWER GRID FAULT ANALYSIS AT R&D NESTER

Between 6 July and 28 August 2026, Tiago Fernandes, a student of Computer Science and Engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico, completed a summer internship at R&D Nester within the GridData Project.

The main objective of the internship was to develop a dashboard that would make grid data analysis results more accessible, intuitive, and easier to interpret for different users.

During the internship, Tiago developed the COMTRADE Analytics Engine Dashboard, a web application that integrates the results of the fault-analysis tools developed previously by R&D Nester.

The solution enables users to upload oscillography records in COMTRADE format and follow the complete analysis process through a graphical interface.

The dashboard organises the analysis into a six-step workflow covering signal visualisation, fault detection, feature extraction, event segmentation, fault classification and incident reporting.

Throughout the process, users can interactively visualise three-phase current and voltage signals, identify the different periods associated with an event, compare different classification methods and review the main calculated indicators.

The developed solution also includes user authentication and management, interactive filtering and visualisation of results, data export functionalities and the generation of a structured incident report containing the main results of the analysis.

The dashboard was developed mainly using Python, Dash, Flask and Plotly, and was also prepared for deployment using Docker.

This work contributes to R&D Nester's capabilities in exploiting and adding value to power grid data, bringing advanced analytical tools closer to their users and providing a basis that can be extended with new functionalities and analysis methods in the future.

The separation between the developed interface and the existing analytics engine also allows both components to continue evolving in a modular way.

Throughout the internship, Tiago strengthened his skills in power system data analysis, signal processing and visualisation, fault analysis, Python web development and application deployment, through an experience that combined power systems engineering, data analytics and software development.