Chapter 2

Load Flow Studies

 Introduction
• Power flow study is also known as load flow
study.

• It is an analysis during steady-state conditions.

• It is used for planning and controlling a system.

• Assumptions: balanced conditions and single

phase analysis.
 Introduction
Power flow problem can be understood by a simple system.

V1 Ii is the current
SG1 injected into the bus.
SD2
Vi is the Complex
voltage at the bus.

SGi is the Complex

SD3 power injected by
SD4 SG3 generator.
I3
SDi is the Complex
S i  SGi  SDi power drawn by the
load.
S i is the Complex power injected to the bus i .
 Introduction
Main objective of load flow analysis is
1) To determine the Complex voltages Vi at all the
busses.
2) To determine the Complex power Pi and Qi at
required busses.

Following points will be observed during Load flow studies

• Violation of voltage Magnitude
• Over loading of lines
• Overloading of generators
• Reduction of stability margins
 REAL AND REACTIVE POWER INJECTED IN A BUS

For the formulation of the real and reactive power entering a bus, we
need to define the following quantities.
Let the voltage at the ith bus be denoted by

Vi  Vi  i  Vi cos  i  j sin  i 
Also let us define the self admittance at bus-i as
Yii  Yii  ii
Yii  Yii cos ii  j sin  ii   Gii  jBii
Similarly the mutual admittance between the buses
i and j can be written as

Yij  Yij  ij  Yij cos ij  j sin  ij   Gij  jBij

 Vi V1
yi1
V2
Cntd… yi2
Ii
Vn

…
The current injected at bus-i is given as yin

I i  Yi1V1  Yi 2V2    YinVn

n
( 1)
 Y
k 1
Vk
ik

• The complex power at bus-i is then given by

n
Pi  jQi  Vi I i  Vi  YikVk
 

k 1

 Vi cos  i  j sin  i . YikVk cos ik  j sin  ik cos  k  j sin  k 

n

k 1

  YikViVk cos  i  j sin  i cos ik  j sin  ik cos  k  j sin  k 

n

k 1
(2)
 Cntd…
• Note that

cos  j sin  . cos  j sin . cos  j sin  

i i ik ik k k

 cos   j sin  .cos     j sin   

i i ik k ik k

 cos       j sin     
ik k i ik k i

Therefore substituting in (2) we get the real and reactive power as

n
Pi  Y ViVk cos ik   k   i 
ik
k 1
n
Qi   YikViVk sin  ik   k   i 
k 1
 Equation for Bus voltages

Pi  jQi  Vi I i *

I i  ( Pi  jQi ) / Vi * (1)
n
I i   YikVk
k 1
n
I i  YiiVi   YikVk (2)
k 1
i ! k

From equations 1 and 2

n
( Pi  jQi ) / Vi *  YiiVi   YikVk
k 1
i ! k
 n
Vi  (1 / Yii )[(Pi  jQi ) / Vi *   YikVk ]
k 1
i ! k
 Power Flow Solution
• 4 quantities are associated with each bus,
which are:
– voltage magnitude |V|
– phase angle,δ
– real power, P (unit: Watt)
– reactive power, Q (unit: Var)
 Types of busses
Types of Buses in Power Systems
 Load Bus or PQ Bus
– known real (P) and reactive (Q) power injections.
– No generator attach to load bus.
 Generator Bus or PV Bus
– known real (P) power injection and the voltage
magnitude (V).
 Slack Bus or Swing Bus
– known voltage magnitude (V) and voltage angle (),
often it is taken to be 10 p.u.
– must have one generator as the slack bus.
– takes up the power slack due to losses in the network.
 Basic Techniques
Basic Techniques for Power Flow Studies
• Power flow analysis is an iterative problem.
• Steps to be taken in power flow analysis:
1) One line diagram or load flow data of a power system
2) Construct Bus Admittance Matrix (Ybus)
3) Calculate the power flow analysis equations/parameters
• Power flow is a nonlinear problem and it is commonly
solved by the iterative solution of nonlinear algebraic
equations:
– Gauss-Seidal
– Newton-Raphson
– Fast Decoupled
 Data for Load flow
• System Data
This should give the information on the following.
Number of busses ,n
 Number of PV busses.
 Number of Loads.
 Number of transmission lines
 Number of transformers.
 Number of Shunts elements.
 The slack bus number.
 Voltage magnitude of slack
Cntd…
• Generator Bus Data
For every PV Bus i , the data required is
 Bus Number.
 Active power generation PGi.
 The specified voltage magnitude | V i , sp|.
 Minimum reactive power Qi , min.
 Maximum reactive power Qi , max.

• Load Data
For all loads, the data required is
 Bus Number.
 Active power Demand PDi.
 Reactive power Demand QDi.
Cntd…
• Transmission Line Data
For every transmission line the data required is
 Bus Numbers.
 Resistance of the line.
 Reactance of the line.
 Half line charging impedance.

• Transformer Data
For every transformer , the data required is
 Bus Numbers.
 Resistance of the transformer.
 Reactance of the transformer.
 Off-nominal turns ratio.
Gauss seidel method of
Load flow solution

Complex power injected at bus i is given by

Pi  jQi  Vi I i *

I i  ( Pi  jQi ) / Vi * (1)
Current injected at bus i is given by
n
I i   YikVk
k 1
n
I i  YiiVi   YikVk (2)
k 1
i ! k
From equations 1 and 2
n
( Pi  jQi ) / Vi *  YiiVi   YikVk
k 1
i ! k n
Vi  (1 / Yii )[(Pi  jQi ) / Vi *   YikVk ]
k 1
i ! k

*Above equation is an implicit function

• Load flow equations are non-linear algebraic
equations.
*To seek a solution we make an initial guess of all the
bus voltages. ( except slack BUS) .
* In Gauss seidel method, the values of updated
voltages are used in computation of subsequent
voltages
Algorithm for Gauss seidel method
of Load flow solution
1. Prepare the Data for load flow. ( Generator bus ,Load
bus , Slack bus and line data)
2. Formulate the Bus Admittance Matrix YBUS.
3. Assume initial voltages for all (n-1) busses, i.e 2,…..n (
except slack bus V1=1.0).
4. Update the voltages. In any (r+1)th iteration, the
voltages are given by

For i =1 ,2 3……..n
Algorithm cntd……
Algorithm cntd……
7. Compute all line flows.
All line currents are given by

All the powers