SimSEE

Series: “SimSEE User Manuals”

Volume 1

Editor and Simulator

April 2026 Edition: Eng. Ruben Chaer

Montevideo – Uruguay.

P R E F A C E

The SimSEE platform is open source. Since its inception in 2007, various individuals have incorporated improvements and new features. This makes maintaining an up-to-date set of manuals a significant challenge. This manual attempts to reflect the platform's status as of November 2019. The online version of the manual and online help, which may reflect the latest improvements and additions, can be accessed at https://simsee.org. This version is also directly accessible by pressing the help buttons in SimSEE applications.

Historical Overview

The core of the SimSEE platform was developed at the Institute of Electrical Engineering (IIE) of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of the Republic of Uruguay within the framework of the PDT-47/12 project of the IDB-CONICYT technological development program. Since then, the platform has been continuously improved thanks to funding from competitive projects under the Energy Sector Fund of the National Research and Innovation Agency (ANII) (PR_FSE_2009-18: “Improvements to the SimSEE platform”, ANII-FSE-1-2011-1-6552: “Modeling of indigenous energies in SimSEE”, ANII-FSE_1_2013_1_10957: “Optimizer of LNG shipment purchase schedules for Uruguay”), and the PRONOS and VATES projects (2016-2018) for the assimilation of generation forecasts and continuous simulation of the hourly dispatch for the following seven days.

SimSEE was conceived with the philosophy of FREE SOFTWARE and with the purpose of providing a platform that could serve academic purposes such as teaching, research, and outreach. The software is distributed free of charge under the GNU-GPL v3 license.

SimSEE is programmed in Object-Oriented Pascal, using the Lazarus Pascal development environment (Free Pascal compiler). This development environment, in addition to being excellent, has the advantage of being free, which allows advanced users with programming knowledge to make improvements and develop new models on the SimSEE platform using 100% free software. The Object-Oriented programming style simplifies the extension of the platform and the development of new models.

The first version of the manuals was published in September 2013, a collaboration between the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of the Republic (IIE-FING-UDELAR), the Electricity Market Administration (ADME), and the Julio Américo Ricaldoni Foundation (FJR). Engineers Claudia Cabrera and Lorena Di Chiara were the main authors of that first version.

The second version of the manuals was completed in September 2019 by Engineers Felipe Palacio, Pablo Soubes, and Ruben Chaer, thanks to funding from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for updating the manuals and translating them and the applications into English.

This edition, which began on April 4, 2026, aims to update the manuals. Unlike previous versions, it is now available as a web-based resource instead of PDF files, providing a dynamic, updatable version accessible through the applications' help sections.

Acknowledgements. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my wife, Alicia Butler, who dedicated many hours to reviewing and improving the Spanish text, translating it into English, and publishing the manuals online.

Eng. Ruben Chaer / Institute of Electrical Engineering - FING - UDELAR

September 2019 - Montevideo - Uruguay