A laboratory environment for research, teaching and demonstration of power system behavior has been developed at Arizona State University. The main driver is a real time digital simulation of a large power system. A full-graphic human interface made up of several levels of one-line diagrams, tables and other displays enable the observation of the power system behavior in real time as well as effect its behavior by introducing supervisory control actions. These programs operate on a database, which can be changed to represent different power systems. The simulation and the database are run on a VAX 11–785 mainframe computer while the human interface is run on an Apollo DN570 workstation with a 19 inch full-graphic color display. The two computers are linked via a high speed ethernet data link. The program to program communication was specifically developed for this application. The total environment created is that of a power system control center. It can be used to demonstrate and teach power system behavior as well as experiment with all facets of the energy management system. This paper provides an overview of the laboratory environment. © 1990 IEEE