Power Flow Analysis

In computer application in power system

analysis
Purpose of Load Flow
Calculations
 Network planning tasks
 Determination of equipment loading
 Identification of weak points
 Impact of load increase
 Investigation of peak / low load and generation conditions
 Voltage control, reactive power compensation
 Security of supply (n-1 criterion) and reliability
 Network operation
 Loss reduction
 Investigation of network configurations during maintenance
 Initial state for
 Stability calculations
 Motor start

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Results of load flow
calculation
 Load currents
 magnitude and angle
 Equipment loading, overloading

 Node voltages
 magnitude and angle

 Powers
 Active and reactive power balance
 Active and reactive power of generators
 Losses

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Modeling for Load Flow
 Modeling mathematically as voltage or power
source

Slack bus - voltage (magnitude and angle) fixed,

real and reactive power variable

PU-/PV-bus - voltage (magnitude) and real power

fixed,
reactive power variable
(normal operation mode of generator)

PQ-bus - real and reactive power fixed,

voltage (magnitude and angle) variable
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Importance of Slack
Generator
 Task of slack generator (swing bus)
 Fixing of voltage angle
 Balance of power difference between loads and
infeed

5
Fundamentals of load flow
calculation
 infeeds and loads, buses, branches
• description of network topology, i.e.
 solving load flow calculation
Node

Load

Infeed
~

Branch

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Description of infeeds
 Slack feed: voltage fixed
δ fixed
P, Q variable
1 slack needed in each network to balance powers

 PU-feed: voltage fixed

real power fixed
Q, δ variable

 PQ-feed: real power fixed

reactive power fixed
U, δ variable

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Description of loads

 PQ-load: real and reactive power fixed

description by P,Q
P, cos phi
S, cos phi
I, cos phi...

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Description of branches

 Impedance ZAB=RAB+ jXAB

or

Admittance 1 1

Y AB = =
Z AB RAB + jX AB

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 Description of network
topology
Y 12 + Y 13 + Y 15 − Y 12 − Y 13 0 − Y 15 
 − Y Y + Y − Y 0 0 
 21 21 23 23 
Y = − Y 31 − Y 32 Y 31 + Y 32 + Y 34 − Y 34 0 
 
 0 0 − Y 43 Y 43 + Y 45 − Y 12 
 − Y 51 0 0 − Y 54 Y 51 + Y 54 

2 3

Y ii − Sum of all admittance s I2

I12 Load
Y12
connected to node i Infeed
U1 Branch

Y ik − Negative admittance
~ 1

between node i and node k

5 4

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Properties of admittance
matrix
 large matrix

 elements are complex numbers

 sparse (for large networks only few elements non-

zero)

 diagonal elements positive

 non-diagonal elements zero or negative

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Load flow problem

[I] = [ Y ] ⋅ [U]
[ Y ] − admittance matrix
[U] − matrix of node voltages
[I] − matrix of node currents
(signed sum of all currents at node)

non-linear problem for non-impedance loads

(typical)

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Load flow problem

power at nodes
*
Pi + jQi = 3U i ⋅ I i

power at nodes, expressed as matrix equation

p + jq = 3 ⋅ diag ( u ) ⋅ i = 3 ⋅ diag ( u ) ⋅ Y ⋅ u
* * *

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Solving technique

 Guauss-Seidel method
 Newton-Raphson method
 Fast Decoupled method

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Gauss-Seidel technique

0.9

0.8

0.7

0.6
f(x)

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1 f1(x)=x      
Root  f2(x)=exp(­x)
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
x

Similar to the fixed-point iteration method

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Convergence of Fixed-point
iteration
y y
y1 = x
y1 = x

y 2 = g( x)

• • y 2 = g(x )

x2 x1 x0 x x1 x 2 x0 x

y
y
y 2 = g( x )
y 2 = g( x )
y1 = x y1 = x

• •

x 0 x1 x 2 x x1 x0 x

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Newton-Raphson method
f(x i )  0
f(x) f '(x i ) 
x i  x i 1
f(x i )
df(xS2) x i 1  x i 
dxS2 f '(x i )
xL1 xS1 xS3 xS2 xL2 x

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Limits of load flow calculation
 Iteration boundary
 high accuracy (ε small) vs. high calculation time

 Load model
 assumption of constant power for PQ-loads only valid near
rated voltage
 for low voltages load assumption too high -> voltage collapse

 Possible reasons for non-convergence

 load too high (PQ-load instead of Z-load)
 reactive power problem -> voltage collapse
 long lines
 slack bus badly positioned

 Steady state solution might not be reachable because of stability

problems

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Principle procedure of load flow
calculation by iteration Start

Start values for Ui = U r

node voltages δi = 0

Start values
∆U i = ∆δ i = 0
for deviations

Adjustment of U i = U i + ∆U i
node voltages δ i = δ i + ∆δ i

Calculation of node power Calculation of ΔUi

p + jq = 3 ⋅ diag( u ) ⋅ i = 3 ⋅ diag( u ) ⋅ Y ⋅ u and Δδi
* * *

Comparison
with allowed divergence no
Pi − Pnom < ε
Qi − Qnom < ε

yes
End

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Gauss-Seidel method

 Calculation continues with the new values of

voltage for new iteration
 The process is repeated until the difference in
voltage between the consecutive iterations is
small enough
 Converges slowly

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Gauss-Seidel acceleration
factor
 Correction in voltage is multiplied by the
constant ω

 Selection of the multiplier depends on the

network to be analyzed; 1.6 being a common
value

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Newton-Raphson method

 f(x) = 0
 Initial guess x0
 Find ∆x1 such that f(x0 + ∆x1) = 0

 Taylor series: f (x0) + f ’(x0)∆x1 = 0

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Newton-Raphson method
 The process is repeated with the value
x1 = x0 + ∆x1

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Newton-Raphson method
 Power equations for load nodes

 Alternative representation of power equations

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Newton-Raphson method

 Initially guess for voltage magnitude and

angle
 Corresponding Pi and Qi to guessed voltage
are calculated
 Compare with initial data of P and Q to get
mismatch ∆ Pi and ∆ Qi
 Repeat until mismatches are small enough

25
Newton-Raphson method
 Selection of initial values Ui0 and δi0
 Calculation of mismatches (actual-calculated)

 Form linearization of node equations

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Newton-Raphson method

 Determine inverse Jacobian matrix and solve

the corrections for angles and voltages
 Substitute new values to voltages and angles
and calculate the new partial derivative matrix
 Calculate the new power mismatches
 If the mismatches > given tolerance, repeat
the process until the tolerance is small
enough

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The elements of Jacobian
matrix

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Newton-Raphson method –
branch flow
 Power flow in branch is calculated by

Iij = Yij(Vi – Vj)

And Sij = ViI*ij

 Loss in branch is calculated by

SL = Sij - Sji

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Decoupled load flow (DLF)

In a power transmission network,

JB and JC can be assumed zero

Therefore, construction of the Jacobian and

finding its inverse become easier

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Fast decoupled load flow

 The Jacobian matrix replaced by real constant

matrix has to be constructed and inverted only once
 These accelerated (approximate) methods
nevertheless give accurate results, because the
calculated powers are always compared with the
real ones

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Possibilities to reach
convergence
The following tips that may help to achieve convergence. It
should remembered that changes to the network may have to
be reversed again and plausibility of results must be checked.
 change PQ-loads to Z-loads (impedance load conversion)
 change PU-generator to PQ-generator, relax operating limits of
generators
 set starting points
 change method of calculation (current iteration, Newton-
Raphson)
 disconnect long lines
 divide network in independent sub-networks
 try different positions of slack
 depending on network structure insert reactive power (capacitive
or inductive)
 increase number of iterations and change accuracy
requirements
 set tap changer to variable setting
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