Also, for anyone who wants to learn about the ins and outs of mathematical optimization (what this program does), here is an excellent free resource:

https://web.stanford.edu/~boyd/cvxbook/

Also check out Nocedal and Wright for more numerical stuff, and all of Bertsekas's books for more theory.

IMO, optimization for power systems is its own subfield with its own quirks, i.e. I am not well-informed about it other than that I know they typically use Newton's method or something derived from it if you read either of the two linked books. However, optimization is a general technique which should be a part of any economy at scale. I.e. revolutionaries should unironically learn optimization if you have the time to do so.

I'll say exactly what I felt when I used PSSE and fmincon and every other closed-source optimization program for the first time: "Neato, now where's the source code? Why am I supposed to just trust that this will work every time?" Or at least put out a paper.

what? first time hearing of this

Good. Can we also do that in the US? Asking for a friend.

Was it because the "super code" password was "password"? From what I understand, that's yow secure the US power grid is.