ECE 476

POWER SYSTEM ANALYSIS

Lecture 12
Power Flow

Professor Tom Overbye

Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering

Announcements

Be reading Chapter 6, also Chapter 2.4 (Network Equations).

HW 5 is 2.38, 6.9, 6.18, 6.30, 6.34, 6.38; do by October 6
but does not need to be turned in.
First exam is October 11 during class. Closed book, closed
notes, one note sheet and calculators allowed

Power Flow Requires Iterative Solution

In the power flow we assume we know Si and the
Ybus . We would like to solve for the V's. The problem
is the below equation has no closed form solution:

* *
Y
V

V
Y
ik k
i ikVk
k 1

k 1
Rather, we must pursue an iterative approach.

Si Vi I i*

Vi

Gauss Iteration
There are a number of different iterative methods
we can use. We'll consider two: Gauss and Newton.
With the Gauss method we need to rewrite our
equation in an implicit form: x = h(x)
To iterate we first make an initial guess of x, x (0) ,
and then iteratively solve x (v +1) h( x ( v ) ) until we
find a "fixed point", x,
such that x h(x).

Gauss Iteration Example

Example: Solve x - x 1 0
x ( v 1) 1 x ( v )
Let k = 0 and arbitrarily guess x (0) 1 and solve
k
0
1
2
3
4

(v )

x
1
2
2.41421
2.55538
2.59805

k
5
6
7
8
9

(v)

x
2.61185
2.61612
2.61744
2.61785
2.61798
5

Stopping Criteria
A key problem to address is when to stop the
iteration. With the Guass iteration we stop when
with x ( v ) @x ( v 1) x ( v )

x ( v )

If x is a scalar this is clear, but if x is a vector we

need to generalize the absolute value by using a norm
x ( v )

Two common norms are the Euclidean & infinity

x 2

x
i
i 1

x max i x i
6

Gauss Power Flow

We first need to put the equation in the correct form
Si Vi I i*
*
Si

S*i

*
Vi

*
Vi I i
n

* *
Y
V

V
Y
ik k
i ikVk
k 1

k 1

Vi

Vi

YikVk

k 1

YikVk

k 1

YiiVi

Vi
n

k 1,k i

1 S*i
Vi
* YikVk

Yii V
k

1,
k

YikVk

k 1

YikVk

Gauss Two Bus Power Flow Example

A 100 MW, 50 Mvar load is connected to a generator
through a line with z = 0.02 + j0.06 p.u. and line charging of 5 Mvar on each end
(100 MVA base). Also, there is a 25 Mvar capacitor at bus 2. If the generator
voltage is 1.0 p.u., what is V2?

SLoad =1.0+j0.5p.u.

Gauss Two Bus Example, contd

The unknown is the complex load voltage, V2 .
To determine V2 we need to know the Ybus .
1
5 j15
0.02 j 0.06
Hence Ybus

5 j14.95 5 j15

j
15
5

j
14.70

( Note B22 - j15 j 0.05 j 0.25)

Gauss Two Bus Example, contd

n

1 S*2
V2
* YikVk
Y22 V2 k 1,k i

-1 j 0.5

1
V2
(5 j15)(1.00)

*
5 j14.70
V2

Guess V2(0) 1.00 (this is known as a flat start)

v
0
1
2

(v )
V2

1.000 j 0.000
0.9671 j 0.0568
0.9624 j 0.0553

v
3
4

(v)
V2

0.9622 j 0.0556
0.9622 j 0.0556
10

Gauss Two Bus Example, contd

V2 0.9622 j 0.0556 0.9638 3.3
Once the voltages are known all other values can
be determined, such as the generator powers and the
line flows
S1* V1* (Y11V1 Y12V2 ) 1.023 j 0.239
In actual units P1 102.3 MW, Q1 23.9 Mvar
2

The capacitor is supplying V2 25 23.2 Mvar

11

Slack Bus
In

previous example we specified S2 and V1 and then

solved for S1 and V2.

We can

not arbitrarily specify S at all buses because

total generation must equal total load + total losses
We also need an angle reference bus.
To solve these problems we define one bus as the
"slack" bus. This bus has a fixed voltage magnitude
and angle, and a varying real/reactive power injection.

12

Gauss with Many Bus Systems

With multiple bus systems we could calculate
new Vi ' s as follows:
Vi( v 1)

n
1 S*i
(v )* YikVk(v )

Yii V
k

1,
k

i
i

hi (V1( v ) ,V2( v ) ,...,Vn(v ) )

But after we've determined Vi( v 1) we have a better

estimate of its voltage , so it makes sense to use this
new value. This approach is known as the
Gauss-Seidel iteration.
13

Gauss-Seidel Iteration
Immediately use the new voltage estimates:
V2( v 1) h2 (V1 ,V2( v ) ,V3( v ) ,,Vn( v ) )
V3( v 1) h2 (V1 ,V2( v 1) ,V3( v ) ,,Vn(v ) )
V4( v 1) h2 (V1 ,V2( v 1) ,V3( v 1) ,V4( v ) ,Vn( v ) )
M
Vn( v 1) h2 (V1 ,V2(v 1) ,V3( v 1) ,V4( v 1) ,Vn( v ) )
The Gauss-Seidel works better than the Gauss, and
is actually easier to implement. It is used instead
of Gauss.
14

Three Types of Power Flow Buses

There

are three main types of power flow buses

Load (PQ) at which P/Q are fixed; iteration solves for

voltage magnitude and angle.
Slack at which the voltage magnitude and angle are fixed;
iteration solves for P/Q injections
Generator (PV) at which P and |V| are fixed; iteration
solves for voltage angle and Q injection
special coding is needed to include PV buses in the
Gauss-Seidel iteration

15

Gauss-Seidel Advantages
Each

iteration is relatively fast (computational order

is proportional to number of branches + number of
buses in the system
Relatively easy to program

16

Gauss-Seidel Disadvantages
Tends

to converge relatively slowly, although this

can be improved with acceleration
Has tendency to miss solutions, particularly on large
systems
Tends to diverge on cases with negative branch
reactances (common with compensated lines)
Need to program using complex numbers

17

Newton-Raphson Algorithm
The

second major power flow solution method is

the Newton-Raphson algorithm
Key idea behind Newton-Raphson is to use
sequential linearization
General form of problem: Find an x such that
f ( x ) 0

18

Newton-Raphson Method (scalar)

1. For each guess of x , x

(v)

, define

x ( v ) x - x ( v )
2. Represent f ( x ) by a Taylor series about f ( x )
(v)
df
(
x
) (v)
(v)
f ( x ) f ( x )
x
dx
2

1 d f (x

2 dx 2

(v)

(v) 2

higher order terms

19

Newton-Raphson Method, contd

3. Approximate f ( x ) by neglecting all terms
except the first two
(v )
df
(
x
) (v)
(v )
f ( x ) 0 f ( x )
x
dx

4. Use this linear approximation to solve for x ( v )

(v)

df ( x )
(v)
x

f (x )

dx

5. Solve for a new estimate of x

(v )

( v 1)

(v)

(v)
20

Newton-Raphson Example
Use Newton-Raphson to solve f ( x) x 2 - 2 0
The equation we must iteratively solve is
x

(v )

(v )

( v 1)

( v 1)

(v)

df ( x )
(v)

f
(
x
)

dx

(v) 2

(( x ) - 2)
( v )
2x
x

(v)

(v)

(v)

1
(v ) 2
2 x (v ) (( x ) - 2)
21

Newton-Raphson Example, contd

x

( v 1)

(v)

1
(v) 2
((
x
) - 2)
2 x (v )

Guess x (0) 1. Iteratively solving we get

v
0
1

x(v )
1
1.5

f ( x(v) )
1
0.25

x ( v )
0.5
0.08333

1.41667

6.953 103

2.454 103

1.41422

6.024 106
22

Sequential Linear Approximations

Function is f(x) = x2 - 2 = 0.
Solutions are points where
f(x) intersects f(x) = 0 axis

At each
iteration the
N-R method
uses a linear
approximation
to determine
the next value
for x
23

Newton-Raphson Comments
When

close to the solution the error decreases quite quickly -method has quadratic convergence
f(x(v)) is known as the mismatch, which we would like to drive to
zero
Stopping criteria is when f(x(v)) <
Results are dependent upon the initial guess. What if we had
guessed x(0) = 0, or x (0) = -1?
A solutions region of attraction (ROA) is the set of initial guesses
that converge to the particular solution. The ROA is often hard to
determine

24

Multi-Variable Newton-Raphson
Next we generalize to the case where x is an ndimension vector, and f (x) is an n-dimension function
x1
x
2

x
M

x
n

f1 ( x)
f 2 ( x)

f n ( x)

f (x)

Again define the solution x so f ( x ) 0 and

x x x
25

Multi-Variable Case, contd

The Taylor series expansion is written for each fi (x)
f1 (x)
f1 ( x)
f1 (x ) f1 ( x)
x1
x2 K
x1
x2
f1 (x)
xn higher order terms
xn
M
f n (x)
f n (x)
f n (x ) f n (x)
x1
x2 K
x1
x2
f n (x)
xn higher order terms
xn

26

Multi-Variable Case, contd

This can be written more compactly in matrix form
f1 (x)
x
1

f1 (x)
f 2 (x)
f (x)
2

f (x )
x1

M
M
f ( x )
n
f (x)
n
x1

f1 (x)
L
x2
f 2 (x)
L
x2
O
O
f n (x)
L
x2

f1 (x)
xn

f 2 (x)
xn

M
f n (x)

xn

x1
x
2
M
x
n

higher order terms

27

Jacobian Matrix
The n by n matrix of partial derivatives is known
as the Jacobian matrix, J (x)
f1 (x)
x
1

f1 (x)
L
x2

f 2 (x)
J (x) x1

f (x)
n
x1

f 2 (x)
L
x2

O
O
f n (x)
L
x2

f1 (x)
xn

f 2 (x)
xn

M
f n (x)

xn
28

Power Grid Planning Process

The determination of new transmission lines to build is

done in a coordinated process between the transmission
grid owners and the regional reliability coordinators
(MISO for downstate Illinois, PJM for the ComEd area).
The planning process takes into account a number of
issues including changes in the load and proposed new
generators
States have the ultimate siting authority.

29

MISO 2011 Report Proposed Projects

https://www.misoenergy.org/Library/Repository/Study/MTEP/MTEP11/MTEP11_Draft_Report.pdf
30

MISO Generation Queue (July 2010)

Source: Midwest ISO MTEP10 Report, Figure 9.1-7

31

MISO Conceptual EHV Overlay

Black lines are DC, blue lines are 765kV, red are 500 kV
Source: Midwest ISO MTEP08 Report

32