6.

4 POWER FLOW SOLUTION

Power flow studies, commonly known as load flow, form an important part of
power system analysis. They are necessary for planning, economic scheduling, and
control of an existing system as well as planning its future expansion. The problem
consists of determining the magnitudes and phase angle of voltages at each bus and
active and reactive power flow in each line.
In solving a power flow problem, the system is assumed to be operating under
balanced conditions and a single-phase model is used. Four quantities are associ­
ated with each bus. These are voltage magnitude |V\, phase angle 8, real power P,
and reactive power Q. The system buses are generally classified into three types.

Slack bus One bus, known as slack or swing bus, is taken as reference where the
magnitude and phase angle of the voltage are specified. This bus makes up
the difference between the scheduled loads and generated power that are
caused by the losses in the network.

Load buses At these buses the active and reactive powers are specified. The mag­
nitude and the phase angle of the bus voltages are unknown. These buses are
called P-Q buses.

Regulated buses These buses are the generator buses. They are also known as
voltage-controlled buses. At these buses, the real power and voltage magni­
tude are specified. The phase angles of the voltages and the reactive power
are to be determined. The limits on the value of the reactive power are also
specified. These buses are called P-V buses.

6.4.1 POWER FLOW EQUATION

Consider a typical bus of a power system network as shown in Figure 6.7. Trans­
mission lines are represented by their equivalent 7r models where impedances have
been converted to per unit admittances on a common MVA base.
Application of KCL to this bus results in

A ~ yioVi + 2/zl(^z “ Ui) + yi2(Vi “ V2) + • • ' + yin^Yi — Ki)

= (l/zO + yn + yi2 + • • • + ytn)Vi - yuVi - yi2V2----------yinVn (6.23)

or
n n
li — Vi yij ~ yij Vj 3 £i (6.24)
j=:0 j=l
FIGURE 6.7
A typical bus of the power system.

The real and reactive power at bus i is

Pi+jQi^V^ (6.25)

or

T Pi ~~ jQi
Ii = —— (6.26)

Substituting for Ii in (6.24) yields

Pi ~ iQi
1
= ViAE va -AE nM
J=0 j=l
j** ,627>

From the above relation, the mathematical formulation of the power flow
problem results in a system of algebraic nonlinear equations which must be solved
by iterative techniques.

6.5 GAUSS-SEIDEL POWER FLOW SOLUTION

In the power flow study, it is necessary to solve the set of nonlinear equations
represented by (6.27) for two unknown variables at each node. In the Gauss-Seidel
method (6.27) is solved for Vj, and the iterative sequence becomes

j±i (6.28)
Dij
where yij shown in lowercase letters is the actual admittance in per unit. P?ch
and Q?ch are the net real and reactive powers expressed in per unit. In writing the
KCL, current entering bus i was assumed positive. Thus, for buses where real and
reactive powers are injected into the bus, such as generator buses, P?ch and Q?ch
have positive values. For load buses where real and reactive powers are flowing
away from the bus, P?ch and Q?ch have negative values. If (6.27) is solved for Pt
and Qi, we have

j±i (6.29)
j=o j-l

j+i (6.30)
j=o j=l

The power flow equation is usually expressed in terms of the elements of

the bus admittance matrix. Since the off-diagonal elements of the bus admittance
matrix Ybus, shown by uppercase letters, are = —yij, and the diagonal elements
are Yu = (6.28) becomes

(6.31)

and

+1) = [vWYi. + £ YijVgW]} j ±i (6.32)

>=1

Q(^!) = [yWy.. + £ yvy/fc)]} j i (6.33)

Yu includes the admittance to ground of line charging susceptance and any other
fixed admittance to ground. In Section 6.7, a model is presented for transformers
containing off-nominal ratio, which includes the effect of transformer tap setting.
Since both components of voltage are specified for the slack bus, there are
2(n — 1) equations which must be solved by an iterative method. Under normal
operating conditions, the voltage magnitude of buses are in the neighborhood of
1.0 per unit or close to the voltage magnitude of the slack bus. Voltage magnitude at
load buses are somewhat lower than the slack bus value, depending on the reactive
power demand, whereas the scheduled voltage at the generator buses are somewhat
higher. Also, the phase angle of the load buses are below the reference angle in
accordance to the real power demand, whereas the phase angle of the generator
buses may be above the reference value depending on the amount of real power
flowing into the bus. Thus, for the Gauss-Seidel method, an initial voltage estimate
of 1.0 4- jO.O for unknown voltages is satisfactory, and the converged solution
correlates with the actual operating states.
For P-Q buses, the real and reactive powers P*ch and Q?ch are known. Start­
ing with an initial estimate, (6.31) is solved for the real and imaginary components
of voltage. For the voltage-controlled buses (P-V buses) where P?ch and 1141 are
specified, first (6.33) is solved for Q^k+1\ and then is used in (6.31) to solve for
However, since |I4| is specified, only the imaginary part of V^k+1' is re­
tained, and its real part is selected in order to satisfy

(e(fc+1))2 + (/(fe+1))2 = |V.|2 (6.34)

or
ejfc+1) = \/|K|2 - (//fc+1))2 (6-35)

where e[k^ and are the real and imaginary components of the voltage
itera(jve sequence.
The rate of convergence is increased by applying an acceleration factor to the
approximate solution obtained from each iteration.

v/fc+1) = vw+Q(vwz _ (6 36)

where o is the acceleration factor. Its value depends upon the system. The range of
1.3 to 1.7 is found to be satisfactory for typical systems.
The updated voltages immediately replace the previous values in the solution
of the subsequent equations. The process is continued until changes in the real and
imaginary components of bus voltages between successive iterations are within a
specified accuracy, i.e.,

|ej*+1) - e^l < e

l/ifc+1)-/ife)| <e (6-37)

For the power mismatch to be reasonably small and acceptable, a very tight tol­
erance must be specified on both components of the voltage. A voltage accuracy
in the range of 0.00001 to 0.00005 pu is satisfactory. In practice, the method for
determining the completion of a solution is based on an accuracy index set up on
the power mismatch. The iteration continues until the magnitude of the largest ele­
ment in the AF and AQ columns is less than the specified value. A typical power
mismatch accuracy is 0.001 pu
Once a solution is converged, the net real and reactive powers at the slack bus
are computed from (6.32) and (6.33).
6.6 LINE FLOWS AND LOSSES

After the iterative solution of bus voltages, the next step is the computation of line
flows and line losses. Consider the line connecting the two buses i and j in Figure
6.8. The line current measured at bus i and defined positive in the direction

Vij

I
FIGURE 6.8
Transmission line model for calculating line flows.

z —> j is given by

Iij = If + Ii0 = yij(Vi - Vj) 4- yi0Vi (6.38)

Similarly, the line current Iji measured at bus j and defined positive in the direction
j i is given by

Iji = -If + Ijo = yij(Vj - Vi) + yjoVj (6.39)

The complex powers Sij from bus i to j and Sj* from bus j to z are

= VJ*- (6.40)
Sji = Vjll (6.41)

The power loss in line i ~ j is the algebraic sum of the power flows determined
from (6.40) and (6.41), i.e.,

Sl ij ~ Sij 4- Sji (6.42)

The power flow solution by the Gauss-Seidel method is demonstrated in the

following two examples.

Example 6.7 (chp6ex7)

Figure 6.9 shows the one-line diagram of a simple three-bus power system with
generation at bus 1. The magnitude of voltage at bus 1 is adjusted to 1.05 per
unit. The scheduled loads at buses 2 and 3 are as marked on the diagram. Line
impedances are marked in per unit on a 100-MVA base and the line charging sus­
ceptances are neglected.

256.6
MW

110.2
Mvar

FIGURE 6.9
One-line diagram of Example 6.7 (impedances in pu on 100-MVA base).

(a) Using the Gauss-Seidel method, determine the phasor values of the voltage at
the load buses 2 and 3 (P-Q buses) accurate to four decimal places.
(b) Find the slack bus real and reactive power.
(c) Determine the line flows and line losses. Construct a power flow diagram show­
ing the direction of line flow.

(a) Line impedances are converted to admittances

1
= 10 - J20
0.02 + JO.04
Similarly, 3/13 = 10 — J30 and 3/23 — 16 — j32. The admittances are marked on the
network shown in Figure 6.10.
At the P-Q buses, the complex loads expressed in per units are

gsch (256.6+ >110.2)

i0Q = -2.566->1.102 pu

(138.6+ >45.2)
= -1.386->0.452 pu
100
Since the actual admittances are readily available in Figure 6.10, for hand calcu­
lation, we use (6.28). Bus 1 is taken as reference bus (slack bus). Starting from
an initial estimate of V+ = 1.0 + >0.0 and V+ = 1.0 + >0.0, V2 and ^3 are
computed from (6.28) as follows
+ 1/12 Vl + 1/23^3°^

3/12 + V'23
 1 2
256.6
MW

110.2
Mvar

FIGURE 6.10
One-line diagram of Example 6.7 (admittances in pu on 100-MVA base).

-~2;Totjo102 + (10 - >20)(1.05 + >0) + (16 - >32)(1.0 + >0)

(26 - >52)
= 0.9825 - >0.0310

and
S^^ + yi3Vi+y23V2(1)
yv1)2=
3 *—Ta----------------------------------
2/13 4- 2/23
--•■^i6-^452 + (10 - >30)(1.05 + >0) + (16 - >32)(0.9825 - >0.0310)
(26->62)
= 1.0011 ->0.0353

For the second iteration we have

y(2) o^+^oTo + (10 - >20)(1.05 + >0) + (16 - >32)(1.0011 - >0.0353)

2 (26 - >52)
== 0.9816 — JO.0520

and

y(2) iTson+^lt + (10 - J'30)(1.05 + >0) + (16 - >32)(0.9816 - >0.052)

3 (26 - >62)
= 1.0008 - jO.0459

The process is continued and a solution is converged with an accuracy of 5 x 10”5

per unit in seven iterations as given below.
v2(3) = 0.9808 - >0.0578 V3(3) = 1.0004 - >0.0488
254 6. POWER FLOW ANALYSIS

V2(4) = 0.9803 - >0.0594 Vg(4) = 1.0002 - >0.0497

V2(5) = 0.9801 - >0.0598 V3(5) = 1.0001 - >0.0499
V2(6) = 0.9801 - JO.0599 y/6' = 1.0000 - >0.0500
V2(7) = 0.9800 - >0.0600 y3(7) = 1.0000 - >0.0500

The final solution is

V2 = 0.9800 - >0.0600 = 0.98183Z-3.50350 pu

V3 = 1-0000 - >0.0500 = 1.00125Z-2.86240 pu

(b) With the knowledge of all bus voltages, the slack bus power is obtained from
(6.27)

-Pl - jQi = Vi*[Vi(yi2 + 3/13) - (3/12^2 + yi3V3)]

= 1.05(1.05(20 - >50) - (10 - >20)(0.98 - >.06) -
(10 — >30) (1.0 — >0.05)]
= 4.095 ->1.890

or the slack bus real and reactive powers are Pi = 4.095 pu = 409.5 MW and
Qi = 1.890 pu = 189 Mvar.

(c) To find the line flows, first the line currents are computed. With line charging
capacitors neglected, the line currents are

I12 = 2/12 (Vi - V2) = (10 - J20) [(1.05 + JO) - (0.98 - J0.06)] = 1.9 - J0.8
I21 ~ ~Ii2 — —1.9 + JO.8
hs = yM - V3) = (10 - >30)[(1.05 + >0) - (1.0 - >0.05)] = 2.0 - >1.0
-I31 = —P13 — -2.0+ >1.0
/23 = 2/23(V2 - y3) = (16 - >32)[(0.98 - >0.06) - (1 - >0.05)] = -.64 + >.48
I32 — —P23 = 0.64 — >0.48

The line flows are

S12 = ViA*2 = (1-05 + >0.0)(1.9 + >0.8) = 1.995 + >0.84 pu

= 199.5 MW + >84.0 Mvar
S21 = V2/2*i = (0.98 - >0.06)(-1.9 - >0.8) = -1.91 - >0.67 pu
= —191.0 MW — >67.0 Mvar
s13 = y/^3 = (1.05+ >0.0)(2.0 +>1.0) = 2.1 +>1.05 pu
= 210.0 MW+ >105.0 Mvar
 6.6. LINE FLOWS AND LOSSES 255

531 = V3I^ = (1.0 - >0.05)(—2.0 - >1.0) = -2.05 - >0.90 pu

= -205.0 MW - >90.0 Mvar
S23 = V2/23 = (0-98 - >0.06)(—0.656 + >0.48) = -0.656 - >0.432 pu
= -65.6 MW - >43.2 Mvar
532 = V3/3*2 = (1.0 - >0.05) (0.64 + >0.48) = 0.664 + >0.448 pu
= 66.4 MW + >44.8 Mvar

and the line losses are

Sl 12 = S12 + 52i = 8.5 MW + >17.0 Mvar

Sl 13 = 5i3 + S31 = 5.0 MW + >15.0 Mvar
SL 23 = S23 + 532 = 0.8 MW + >1.60 Mvar

The power flow diagram is shown in Figure 6.11, where real power direction is
indicated by -> and the reactive power direction is indicated by h->. The values
within parentheses are the real and reactive losses in the line.

FIGURE 6.11
Power flow diagram of Example 6.7 (powers in MW and Mvar).

Example 6.8 (chp6ex8)

Figure 6.12 shows the one-line diagram of a simple three-bus power system with
generators at buses 1 and 3. The magnitude of voltage at bus 1 is adjusted to 1.05
pu. Voltage magnitude at bus 3 is fixed at 1.04 pu with a real power generation
of 200 MW. A load consisting of 400 MW and 250 Mvar is taken from bus 2.
Line impedances are marked in per unit on a 100 MVA base, and the line charging
susceptances are neglected. Obtain the power flow solution by the Gauss-Seidel
method including line flows and line losses.
 1 2

FIGURE 6.12
One-line diagram of Example 6.8 (impedances in pu on 100-MVA base).

Line impedances converted to admittances are 2/12 — 10—j'20,2/13 = 10—J30

and 2/23 = 16 - J32. The load and generation expressed in per units are

—4.0 —J2.5 pu

psch _

Bus 1 is taken as the reference bus (slack bus). Starting from an initial estimate of
== 1.0 + j'0.0 and = 1.04 4- j0.0, V% and V3 are computed from (6.28).

+ 3/12 Vi + y23V3(0)

3/12 + 3/23
+ (10 - J'20)(1.05 + JO) + (16 - J32)(1.04 + JO)
(26 - J52)
0.97462 - J0.042307

Bus 3 is a regulated bus where voltage magnitude and real power are specified. For
the voltage-controlled bus, first the reactive power is computed from (6.30)

[V3(O)(3/13 + 3/2.3) - 3/13V! - 3/23V2(1)]}

= -9f{(1.04-J0)[(1.04 + J0)(26-J62) - (10 - J30)(1.05 + JO) -

(16 - J32)(0.97462 - J0.042307)]}
= 1.16
The value of is used as Qfch for the computation of voltage at bus 3. The
complex voltage at bus 3, denoted by \ is calculated

+ 2/13 Vj + 2/23 V2

2/13 + 2/23
+ (10 - >30)(1.05 + >0) + (16 - >32)(0.97462 - >0.042307)
_____

1.03783- JO.005170

Since |V3| is held constant at 1.04 pu, only the imaginary part of V^' is retained,
i.e, — —0.005170, and its real part is obtained from

= ^/(l.Od)2 - (0.005170)2 = 1.039987

Thus

V3(1) = 1.039987 - >0.005170

For the second iteration, we have

2/12 + 3/23
+ (10 - J20)(1.05) + (16 - >32)(1.039987 + >0.005170)
(26->52)
0.971057 - >0.043432

QF = - W3*(1) [V3(1)(2/13 + 2/23) - 2/13Vi - 2/23V2(2)]}

= —3{(1.039987 + >0.005170)[(l.039987 — >0.005170)(26 — >62) -

(10 - >30) (1.05 + >0) - (16 - >32) (0.971057 - >0.043432)]}
= 1.38796

^^ + 2/13^+2/23 V2(2)
y(2) _ ___________________________
vc3 ~
2/13 + 2/23
. msf+gsir + (10 - J3O)(1.O5) + (16 - >32)(.971O57 - >.043432)
(26 - >62)
= 1.03908->0.00730
Since | V3I is held constant at 1.04 pu, only the imaginary part of is retained,
i.e, ~ —0.00730, and its real part is obtained from

42) = ^(1 04)2 - (0.00730)2 = 1.039974

or
F3(2) = 1.039974 - >0.00730

The process is continued and a solution is converged with an accuracy of 5 x 10 5

pu in seven iterations as given below.
V2(3) = 0.97073 - jO.04479 = 1.42904 V3(3) = 1.03996 - jO.00833

v2(4) = 0.97065 - ;0.04533 = 1.44833 V3(4) = 1.03996 - JO.00873

v2(5) = 0.97062 - jO.04555 = 1.45621 V3(5) = 1.03996 - jO.00893
v(6) = 0.97061 - jO.04565 Q(36) = 1.45947 V3(6) = 1.03996 - j'0.00900
y(7) V3(7) = 1.03996 - j0.00903
v2 = 0.97061 - jO.04569 = 1.46082
The final solution is

V2 == 0.97168Z-2.6!348° pu

s3-= 2.0 + jl.4617 pu

V3--= 1.04Z —.498° pu
Si--= 2.1842+J1.4C>85 pu

Line flows and line losses are computed as in Example 6.7, and the results ex
pressed in MW and Mvar are

512 = 179.36 + j 118.734 S21 = —170.97— j'101.947 SLi2 = 8.39+j 16.79

513 — 39.06 + j'22.118 531 = —38.88 —j 21.569 Sl i3 = 0.18 + >0.548
S23 = —229.03 — j'148.05 532 = 238.88 +j 167.746 5L23 = 9.85+>19.69

The power flow diagram is shown in Figure 6.13, where real power direction
is indicated by —> and the reactive power direction is indicated by The values
within parentheses are the real and reactive losses in the line.
 179.362 170.968

FIGURE 6.13
Power flow diagram of Example 6.8 (powers in MW and Mvar).

6.7 TAP CHANGING TRANSFORMERS

In Section 2.6 it was shown that the flow of real power along a transmission line is
determined by the angle difference of the terminal voltages, and the flow of reactive
power is determined mainly by the magnitude difference of terminal voltages. Real
and reactive powers can be controlled by use of tap changing transformers and
regulating transformers.
In a tap changing transformer, when the ratio is at the nominal value, the
transformer is represented by a series admittance yt in per unit. With off-nominal
ratio, the per unit admittance is different from both sides of the transformer, and the
admittance must be modified to include the effect of the off-nominal ratio. Consider
a transformer with admittance yt in series with an ideal transformer representing
the off-nominal tap ratio l:a as shown in Figure 6.14. yt is the admittance in per
unit based on the nominal turn ratio and a is the per unit off-nominal tap position
allowing for small adjustment in voltage of usually ±10 percent. In the case of
phase shifting transformers, a is a complex number. Consider a fictitious bus x
between the turn ratio and admittance of the transformer. Since the complex power
on either side of the ideal transformer is the same, it follows that if the voltage goes
through a positive phase angle shift, the current will go through a negative phase
angle shift. Thus, for the assumed direction of currents, we have

Vx = -Vj (6.43)
a
li = -a% (6.44)

The current It is given by

h = yt(Vi - vx)