A review on Load

flow studies
Presenter:
Ugyen Dorji
Masters student
Kumamoto University, Japan

Course Supervisor:
Dr. Adel A. Elbaset
Minia University, Egypt.
Outline
Introduction
Methodology
Classical methods
Gauss-Seidal method
Newton Raphson method
Fast Decoupled method
Other methods
Fuzzy Logic application
Genetic Algorithm application
Particle swarm method (PS0)
 Load/Power Flow studies
Load-flow studies are performed to determine the steady-state
operation of an electric power system. It calculates the voltage
drop on each feeder, the voltage at each bus, and the power
flow in all branch and feeder circuits.
Determine if system voltages remain within specified limits
under various contingency conditions, and whether equipment
such as transformers and conductors are overloaded.
Load-flow studies are often used to identify the need for
additional generation, capacitive, or inductive VAR support, or
the placement of capacitors and/or reactors to maintain system
voltages within specified limits.
Losses in each branch and total system power losses are also
calculated.
Necessary for planning, economic scheduling, and control of an
existing system as well as planning its future expansion
Pulse of the system
Power Flow Equation

Note: Transmission lines are

represented by their equivalent pi
models (impedance in p.u.)

Fig. 1. A typical bus of the power system.

Applying KCL to this bus

results in

(1)
 (2)

The real and reactive power at

bus i is

Substituting for Ii in (2) yields

Equation (5) is an algebraic non linear equation which must be

solved by iterative techniques
 Gauss-Seidel method
Equation (5) is solved for Vi solved
iteratively

Where yij is the actual admittance in p.u.

Pisch and Qisch are the net real and reactive powers in p.u.
In writing the KCL, current entering bus I was assumed positive.
Thus for:
Generator buses (where real and reactive powers are injected),
Pisch and Qisch have positive values.
Load buses (real and reactive powers flow away from the bus),
Pisch and Qisch have negative values.
Eqn.5 can be solved for Pi and Qi

The power flow equation is usually expressed in terms of

the elements of the bus admittance matrix, Ybus , shown by
upper case letters, are Yij = -yij, and the diagonal elements
are Yii = yij. Hence eqn. 6 can be written as
Iterative steps:
Slack bus: both components of the voltage are specified. 2(n-1)
equations to be solved iteratively.
Flat voltage start: initial voltage of 1.0+j0 for unknown
voltages.
PQ buses: Pisch and Qisch are known. with flat voltage start, Eqn.
9 is solved for real and imaginary components of Voltage.
PV buses: Pisch and [Vi] are known. Eqn. 11 is solved for Qik+1
which is then substituted in Eqn. 9 to solve for Vik+1
 However, since [Vi] is specified, only the imaginary part of Vik+1
is retained, and its real part is selected in order to satisfy

acceleration factor: the rate of convergence is increased by

applying an acceleration factor to the approx. solution obtained
from each iteration.

Iteration is continued until

Once a solution is converged, the net real and reactive powers at

the slack bus are computed from Eqns.10 & 11.
 Line flows and Line losses

Considering Iij positive in the given direction,

Similarly, considering the line current Iji in the given direction,

The complex power Sij from bus i to j and Sji from bus j
to i are
 Newton Raphson Method
Power flow equations formulated in polar form. For
the system in Fig.1, Eqn.2 can be written in terms
of bus admittance matrix as

Note: j also includes i

Expressing in polar form;

Substituting for Ii from Eqn.21 in Eqn. 4

 Separating the real and imaginary parts,

Expanding Eqns. 23 & 24 in Taylor's series about the initial

estimate neglecting h.o.t. we get
 The Jacobian matrix gives the linearized relationship between small
changes in i(k) and voltage magnitude [Vik] with the small changes
in real and reactive power Pi(k) and Qi(k)

The diagonal and the off-diagonal elements of J1 are:

milarly we can find the diagonal and off-diagonal elements of J2,J3 and J4

The terms Pi(k) and Qi(k) are the difference between the
scheduled and calculated values, known as the power
residuals.
Procedures:
1. For Load buses (P,Q specified), flat voltage start. For voltage
controlled buses (P,V specified), set equal to 0.
2. For Load buses, Pi(k) and Qi(k) are calculated from Eqns.23 & 24
and Pi(k) and Qi(k) are calculated from Eqns. 29 & 30.
3. For voltage controlled buses, and Pi(k) and Pi(k) are calculated
from Eqns. 23 & 29 respectively.
4. The elements of the Jacobian matrix are calculated.
5. The linear simultaneous equation 26 is solved directly by
optimally ordered triangle factorization and Gaussian
6. The new voltage magnitudes and phase angles are computed
from (31) and (32).
7. The process is continued until the residuals Pi(k) and Qi(k)
are less than the specified accuracy i.e.

3. Fast Decoupled Method

practical power transmission lines have high X/R ratio.
Real power changes are less sensitive to voltage magnitude
changes and are most sensitive to changes in phase angle .
Similarly, reactive power changes are less sensitive to changes
in angle and are mainly dependent on changes in voltage
magnitude.
Therefore the Jacobian matrix in Eqn.26 can be written as
The diagonal elements of J1 given by Eqn.27 is written as

Replacing the first term of the (37) with Qi from (28)

Bii = sum of susceptances of all the elements incident to bus i.

In a typical power system, Bii Qi therefore we may neglect Qi
 Furthermore, [Vi]2 [Vi] . Ultimately

In equation (28) assuming ii-i+j ii, the off diagonal

elements of J1 becomes

Assuming [Vj] 1 we get

Similarly we can simplify the diagonal and off-diagonal elements of J4 as

With these assumptions, equations (35) & (36) can be

written in the following form
B and B are the imaginary part of the bus
admittance matrix Ybus. Since the elements of the
matrix are constant, need to be triangularized and
inverted only once at the beginning of the
iteration.
Other Methods
Repetitive solution of a large set of linear
equations in LF- time consuming in simulations
Large number of calculations on the Jacobian
matrix.
Jacobian of load flow equation tends to be
singular under heavy loading.
Ill conditioned Jacobian matrix
Doesnt require the formation of the Jacobian
matrix
Insensitive to the initial settings of the solution
variables
Ability to find multiple load-flow solutions.
 Fuzzy Logic application
Repetitive solution of a large set of linear equations in the
load flow problem is one of the most time consuming parts
of power system simulations.
Large number of calculations need on account of
factorisation, refactorization and computations of Jacobian
matrix.
Fundamentally FL is implemented in a fast decoupled load
flow (FDLF) problem.
Mathematical analysis of FDLF
In eqn. 1, the state vector is
updated but state vector V is
fixed. Eqn. 2 is used to update
the state vector V while state
vector is fixed. The whole
calculation will terminate only if
the errors of both these
equations are within acceptable
 Main idea of FLF Algorithm

FLF algorithm is based on FDLF equation but the repeated update of

the state vector performed via Fuzzy Logic Control instead of using the
classical load flow approach.

The FLF algorithm is illustrated

schematically in Fig. 1.In this
Figure the power parameters FP
and FQ are calculated and
introduced to the P- FLCP- and
Q-V FLCQ-V, respectively.
The FLCs generate the correction
of the state vector DX namely,
the correction of voltage angle
for the P- cycle and the
correction of voltage magnitude
V for the Q- V cycle.
 Structure of the fuzzy load flow controller (FLFC)

Calculate and per-unite the power parameters FP and FQ at

each node of the system.
The above parameters are elected as crisp input signals. The
maximum (or worst) power parameter (FPmax or FQmax)
determines the range of scale mapping that transfers the input
signals into corresponding universe of discourse, at every
iteration.
The input signals are fuzzified into corresponding fuzzy signals
(FPfuz or FQ fuz with seven linguistic variables; large negative (LN),
medium negative (MN), small negative (SN), zero (ZR), small
The rule base involves seven rules tallying with seven
linguistic variables:
Rule 1: if Ffuz is LN then Xfuz is LN
Rule 2: if Ffuz is MN then Xfuz is MN
Rule 3: if Ffuz is SN then Xfuz is SN
Rule 4: if Ffuz is ZR then Xfuz is ZR
Rule 5: if Ffuz is SP then Xfuz is SP
Rule 6: if Ffuz is MP then Xfuz is MP
Rule 7: if Ffuz is LP then Xfuz is LP
These fuzzy rules are consistent to that of Eqn.3.
The fuzzy signals ffuz are sent to process logic, which
generates the fuzzy output signals xfuz based on the
previous rule base and are represented by seven linguistic
variables similar to input fuzzy signals.

The maximum corrective action xmax of state variables

determines the range of scale mapping that transfers the
output signals into the corresponding universe of discourse
at every iteration.

where FI expresses the real or reactive power balance

equation at node-I with maximum real or reactive
power mismatch of the system, XI represents the
voltage angle or magnitude at node-I.
 finally the defuzzifier will transform fuzzy output signals
into crisp values for every node of the network. The state
vector is updated as

Index i depicts the number of

iterations.
Case studies
GA applications
Load flow problem
where Gij and Bij are the
(I,j)th element of the
admittance matrix. Ei, and Fi
are real and imaginary
parts of the voltage at node
i.
If node i is a PQ node where the load demand is specified, then
the mismatches in active and reactive powers, Pi and Qi ,
respectively, are given by
Pisp and Qisp are the
specified active and
reactive powers at node i.
 When node i is a PV node, the magnitude of the voltage,
Visp and the active power,Q;P, at i are specified. The
mismatch in voltage magnitude at node i can be defined as

The active power mismatch is as

given in Eqn.3

Objective function H is to be minimized.

Where Npq , Npv are the total numbers of PQ and

PV nodes.
Components in genetic approach
1. Chromosomes: The real and imaginary parts of
the voltages of the nodes in the power system
are encoded using floating-point numbers and
are set as elements in the chromosomes.
2. Fitness function:

M is a constant for amplifying the fitness value.

3. Crossover operation: 2 point crossover method

to bring more diversity in the population of
chromosomes.
4. Mutation operation: An element of a
chromosome is selected randomly. The voltage
value of the element is replaced by a value
arbitrarily chosen within a range of voltage
 Initialize s chromosomes in the
population

Fitness f(x) of each chromosome

(fittest chromosomes always
retained) Fig.1 GA Load flow
Algorithm
flowchart
Selection of chromosomes
(roulette wheel method)

Crossover (Pc= crossover

rate/probability)
End
No of
Offspring Yes
=s? Max
No
Yes No number of
generatio
Mutation n
reached?
Replace the current population with new
population
Constraint satisfaction technique for updating
candidate nodal voltages
(a) Satisfying the powers at a PQ node i by updating a PQ
node d.
(b) updating the voltage at a PV node to satisfy its voltage
and active power requirements
Constraint satisfaction for PQ nodes
Let the real and imaginary voltages of node d be Eid and Fid. The
power mismatches Pi in eqn. 3 and Qi in eqn. 4 for node i are now
set to zero. From eqns. 1-4, when d i, Eid and Fid can be calculated
according to
 When d = i, the power constraints at PQ node d itself are required
to be met. The constraint equations for calculating Eid and Fid of
node d can be derived from eqns. 1- 4 by the same procedure
above and by setting the subscript i in eqns. 1-4 to d.
Constraint satisfaction for PV nodes
Let the real and imaginary voltages of the PV node d in the
chromosome be Edd and Fdd . The mismatches Pd in eqn. 3 and Vd
in eqn. 5 for node d can now be set to zero. From eqns. 1, 3, 5 and
6, the expressions for Edd and Fdd are:
Methods for enhancing the CGALF Algorithm
a) Dynamic population technique
) Diversity of the chromosomes increased by introducing new
chromosomes in the population to escape from local minimum
points.
) % of existing weaker chromosomes replaced by randomly
generated chromosomes when the values of objective function
H are identical for a specified number of generations or
iterations- subject to constraint satisfaction.
b) Solution acceleration technique
) Faster convergence.
) Modify the constrained candidate solution process such that
the revised solutions in the chromosomes are closer to the
candidate solution in the best or fittest chromosome found so
far.
Vk=2Vk,best Vk
c) Nodal voltage updating sequence
i. Update the voltages of the PV nodes in the sequence of the
node number using eqns. 12-14.
ii. Then, the PQ node, which has the largest total mismatch, is
updated first using the constraint satisfaction methods.
(iii) Repeat step (ii) until all the PQ nodes are processed.
In step (i) above, the update operation attempts to meet
the voltage magnitude constraints and active power
requirements of the PV nodes.
The strategy employed in step (ii) guarantees a reduction
of the mismatch at the node with the largest total
mismatch. The strategy is applied dynamically during the
processing of the nodes as indicated in step (iii).

Application examples
Klos-kerner 11 node test system.
Two loading condition considered.
Node 1: Slack node,voltage level=1.05pu. Nodes 5 and 9 are PV
nodes with target voltages of 1.05pu and 1.0375pu.
Hybrid Particle swarm optimization
application
1. Problem Formulation: The load flow equations, at any given
bus(i) in the system, are as follows:
The optimization problem is formulated as follows:

2. Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization.

The PSO model consists of a number of particles moving
around in the search space, each representing a possible
solution to a numerical problem. Each particle has a
position vector (xi) and a velocity vector (vi)), the position
(pbesti) is the best position encountered by the particle
(i) during its search and the position (gbest) is that of the
best particle in the swarm group.
 In each iteration the velocity of each particle is updated
according to its best-encountered position and the best
position encountered among the group, using the following
equation:

The position of each particle is then updated in each iteration

by adding the velocity vector to the position vector.

Inertia weight w control the impact of the previous history of

velocities on the current velocity-it regulates the trade-off
between the global and local exploration abilities of the swarm.
Suitable value for w usually provide balance between global
and local exploration abilities and consequently a reduction on
the number of iterations for optimal solution.
Ability of breeding, a powerful property of GA is used.
Numerical Examples
IEEE 14 bus system:
 Thank you
References:
1. Power System Analysis, Hadi saadat, McGraw Hill International
editions.
2. Fuzzy Logic application in load flow
studies,J.G.Vlachogiannis,IEE,2001.
3. Development of constrained-Genetic Algorithm load flow
method, K.P.Wong,A.Li,M.Y.Law,IEE,1997.
4. Load flow solution using Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization,
Amgad A.El-Dib et.al, IEEE,2004.