7th International R & D Conference Development and Management of Water and

Energy Resources 4-6 February 2009, Bhubaneswar (Orissa), India

OPTIMAL POWER FLOW SIMULATION IN

DEREGULATED ENVIRONMENT
ANIL G. PATIL
Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Co.Ltd., India

SYNOPSIS: In this paper, The advanced Sequential Quadratic Programming

(SQP) method is proposed to determine the total transfer capability (TTC) of
power transfers between different control areas in deregulated power systems
.The system has 3 areas with 2 generators in each area. Generators in each area
are assumed to belong to the same owner and the loads belong to the same load
serving entity. Transactions between different control areas are investigated. For
evaluation of the total transfer capability (TTC), a Modeling of IEEE-30 Bus
Test systems is taking in to consideration, simulated the results using Meta-Lab
software & calculated total Transfer capability of network accordingly. Multiobjective optimal power flow (OPF) including TTC& system real power loss to
evaluate the feasible maximum TTC value and minimal power loss within real
and reactive power generation limits, thermal limits, voltage limits and stability
limits. The TTC method is based on full AC power flow solution. The objective
function is to maximize total generation supplied and load demand at specific
buses. The mathematical formulation of the proposed method is presented and the
algorithm is tested on the Modified IEEE- 30 bus system to show its capability
Also presented TTC of Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company Ltd
(MSEITCLs) part of the area i.e. 7-Bus 400 Kv Network and evaluate TTC
accordingly.
Key words:, Optimal Power Flow, Total Transfer Capability.
1.

INTRODUCTION

Power system transfer capability indicates how much inter-area power transfers can be
increased without compromising system security. The progressive policies and enabling
provisions in EA-2003 would open new opportunities for setting up merchant generators,
utilization of captive generation and the market development. With the Act as an enabling
framework, it is expected that the amalgamation of provisions like open access and trading
will lead to emergence of new players competing to supply quality and reliable power to the
consumers at affordable prices.
The concept of competitive industries rather than regulated ones has become
prominent in the past few years. Economists and political analysts have promoted the idea
that free markets can drive down costs and prices thus reducing inefficiencies in power
production. This change in the climate of ideas has fostered regulators to initiate reforms to
restructure the electricity industry to achieve better service, reliable operation, and
competitive rates. Deregulation of the power industry was first initiated in United Kingdom,
followed suit in Norway and Australia.[3]

2
2.

Anil G. Patil

Aspects Of ATC & TTC

Available transfer capability (ATC) is the measure of the ability of interconnected electric
systems to reliably move or transfer power from one area to another over all transmission
lines or paths between those areas under specified system conditions. ATC can be defined as
ATC = TTC CBM TRM EXISTING TC
In order to obtain ATC, the total transfer capability (TTC) should be evaluated first
where TTC is the largest flow through selected interfaces or corridors of the transmission
network which causes no thermal overloads, voltage limit violations, voltage collapse or any
other system problems such as transient stability. Other parameters involved in ATC
calculations are the Transmission Reliability Margin (TRM) and Capacity Benefit Margin
(CBM). However, since dedicated methodologies for determining TRM and CBM may vary
among regions, sub-regions, and power pools, this Paper addresses the calculation of TTC as
the basis of ATC
One of the most common approaches for transfer capability calculations is the
continuation power flow (CPF). CPF is a general method for finding the maximum value of a
scalar parameter in a linear function of changes in injections at a set of buses in a power flow
problem. In principle, CPF increases the loading factor in discrete steps and solves the
resulting power flow problem at each step. CPF yields solutions at voltage collapse points.
However, since CPF ignores the optimal distribution of the generation and the loading
together with the system reactive power, it can give conservative transfer capability results.
This work features an OPF-based procedure for calculating the total transfer capability
(TTC). The method is based on full AC power flow solution, which accurately determines
reactive power flow, and voltage limits as well as the line flow effect. The objective function
is to maximize total generation supplied and load demand at specific buses. The
mathematical formulation of the proposed method is presented and the algorithm is tested on
the IEEE 30 bus system and to show its transfer capability. Also presented TTC of
Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company Ltd (MSETCLs) part of the area i.e.
7-Bus 400 KV Network and evaluate TTC accordingly.
Optimal Power Flow (OPF) based TTC Calculation
The OPF-based TTC calculation algorithm described below enables transfers by increasing
the load, with uniform power factor, at a specific load bus or every load bus in the sink
control area, and increasing the real power injected at a specific generator bus or several
generators in the source control area until limits are incurred. Fig(.)shows the IEEE 30 BUS
system.
The main assumptions for this method are:
A current state estimation of the power system is available and the operating point is
secure and stable.The system is properly controlled and can provide enough
damping to keep steady-state stability
The system has sufficiently large stability margin; hence it can survive disturbances
and shift to another stable operating point.
System voltage limit is reached before the system loses voltage stability.

Optimal power flow simulation in deregulated environment

Only thermal limits and bus voltage limits are considered as well as generator active
and reactive power limits. Mathematically, TTC calculation problem can be represented as:
Maximize
J=f (x,u)
(1)
g(x,u)=0;
hmin h (x,u) hmax
Where f(x, u) is the objective function, x represents the system state variable vector and u
the control parameter vector. g(x, u) is the equality constraint function vector and h(x, u) the
inequality constraint function vector. The cost function J is defined to be the sum of total
generation of a specific generator or a group of generators (designated as S) and total load of
a specific load bus or a cluster of load buses (designated as R),
i..e

J PGk PLd
k s

(2)

d R

Where PGk is the generation at bus k and the PLd is the load at bus d. The g(x, u) = 0
is the power flow equality constraint which is
N

p Pi Vi Vj (G ij cos ij B ij sin ij ) 0
i 1

Q Q i Vi Vj (G ij sin ij B ij cos ij ) 0

(3)

i 1

i ref .bus, ref 0

Where Pi ,Qi are the active and reactive power injection at Bus V i&Qiis the voltage
at bus i and j ij i j is the corresponding element in system Y-matrix. The power
injection at bus i is defined as
Pi = PGi PLi
Qi = QGi QLi

(4)

Where PGi and QGi are the real and reactive power generation at bus i, while PLi and
QLi the real and reactive load at bus i. With bus voltages magnitudes, including the Ref. Bus,
and bus voltage phase angles, except the Reference
The inequality constraints are as follows,
(a) The generation and load limits:

Anil G. Patil
min
max
PGk
PGk PGk
(kS)
min
max
Q Gk
Q Gk Q Gk
(kS)

0 PLd P

max
Ld

min
Gk

Where P
min
Gk

max
Gk

&P

(5a)

(dR )

are the upper and lower limits of the generator active power

max
Gk

max

& Q are reactive power limits for generator PLd is the upper limit of
at bus k. Q
the of the load active power which is constrained by distribution facility capacity.
(b) The bus voltage limits applied to all buses in the network

Vimin Vi Vimax

(5b)

(c) The current limits of transmission lines based on thermal considerations:

0 I ij I ijmax

(5c)

Equations (1) to (5) constitute the mathematical model of the OPF-based TTC
computation. In this study, the system state variables are:
Voltage magnitudes and phase angels of all buses except Ref. bus phase angle which is set to
be zero. The control variables are:
Real power output of generator
Real power of load d (PLd)
Reactive power of each generator (QGi).
The advanced Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP)[8] method is selected to
solve the TTC-OPF problem since it was recently developed and proven to be an effective
method for constrained nonlinear programming [7]. For the general purpose optimization
problem in the form given as (here both x and u in Eq. (1) are considered as x):
min f(x)
s.t
gi(x) = 0 (i = 1,2..p)
hj(x0 0 (j = 1,2.m)
(6)
The corresponding Lagrangian function ) , L( x) ,L is formed as
P

i 1

j1

L ( x , ) f ( x ) i g i ( x ) p j j ( x )
(7)
Where (i=1,2,,(p+m)) is the Lagrange multiplier for the active ith equality and
inequality constraint. We can define a corresponding approximate quadratic programming

Optimal power flow simulation in deregulated environment

subproblem. It can be proven that the QP sub-problem at the k-th iteration is equivalent to
another QP sub-problem defined as:
min f (xk)TS + 0.5sT [Hk]s
s.t.
gi(xk) + gi(xk) T sk = 0 (i = 1,2,..P)
hi(xk) + hi(xk) T sk = 0 (j = 1,2,..P)
.
(8)
Where [Hk] is a positive definite matrix that is taken initially as an identity matrix
and updated in subsequent iterations so as to converge to the real Hessian matrix of the
Lagrangian function of Eq. (7) which will be explained below. The vector sk to be optimized
is served as the search direction, i. e.
xk+1 = xk + k sk

(9)

Where is the optimal step length along the search direction sk found by
minimizing the merit function & The update of the Hessian matrix H after the k-th iteration
to improve the quadratic approximation is given as
Hk+1 =
Hk - H TK dk.d Tk H k /(d Tk H k d k ) T /(d Tk d k )
Where
dk = xk+1 - xk
= Qk+(1+)Hkdk , Qk = Vx L (xk+1 - k+1) x L (xkk)
Methodology Adopted For TTC CALCULATION [8]
(i) Calculate base load flow to get x(0) and assume initially the Hessian matrix is unity
(ii) Evaluate the gradients of the objective function and constraint functions
(iii) Solve QP sub-problem to get optimal search direction s
(iv) Find optimal step length and update x
(v) Update the Hessian matrix [H]
(vi) Check convergence. If it is converged, then output results and stop; otherwise
go to step( ii)to next iteration.
Optimal Power Flow Simulation of Modified IEEE-30 Bus System
Using Newtons Raphsons (N-R) Power flow method , Optimal power flow of IEEE-30
Bus(fig1) is calculated.i.e lfnewton ,which is preceded by lfybus(load flow bus)& is followed
by busout and lineflow. In following simulation , some of the buses are found overloaded &
subsequent bus voltages also found below level, To avoid voltage problems, reactive
compensation is recommended for particular buses . The advanced Sequential Quadratic

Anil G. Patil

Programming (SQP) method is selected to solve the TTC-OPF problem since it was recently
developed and proven to be an effective method for constrained nonlinear programming .The
system has 3 areas with 2 generators in each area. Generators in each area are assumed to
belong to the same owner and the loads belong to the same load serving entity. Transactions
between different control areas are investigated.
Following Simulation Shows, how to calculate Area-wise Total transfer capability (TTC) in
[7]interconnected system. Accurate identification of this capability provides vital information
for both planning and operation of the bulk power market.
Modified IEEE-30 Bus System
AREA -1

AREA-2

AREA-3
Fig(1). IEEE-30 Bus System

AREA-wise TTC Computations

Generators & Loads connected to various buses in Area-I is as follows :
Table 1.0
Bus
No.

Area No.

V
(p.u)

Angle
(deg)

Generation
P

Load
P

CASE-1AREA-1
Transaction of power from Area-2 to Area-1& enhancement of TTC
1

1.0

0.0

00

0.0

4.0

1.0

1.0

-0.93

20.0

10.0

15.0

10.7

0.98

-1.70

2.4

1.2

0.97

-1.98

7.6

0.98

-0.85

2.0

1.5

0.97

-2.18

4.0

0.0

0.98

-0.99

50.0

22.8

10.9

0.96

-2.38

15.0

10.0

0.98

-3.44

0.0

0.0

11

0.98

-3.69

2.0

28

0.97

-2.76

Total-->

70

23.0

33

74.8

1.6

0.0
0.0
36.9

Optimal power flow simulation in deregulated environment

Table-2.0
BUS#
Before
After

1
4.0
42.91

2
15.0
5.0

3
2.4
2.4

4
7.6
7.6

5
2.0
2.0

6
4.0
4.0

7
22.8
27.0

8
15.0
15.0

11
2.0
2.0

Ttc
74.8
107.91

Using the proposed OPF-based TTC method, the generation of area 2 increases from 45 MW
to 75.0 MW and the load at area 1 from 74.8 MW to107.91 MW. The loads are modeled as a
constant power factor load. The active loading vector of area 1, excluding intermediate or
zero loading buses, after and before this transaction is shown in Table-2. TTC is 107.91 MW
and the limit was the overloading of line 21-22. Since the objective function maximizes the
total generation in area 2 and the total load in area 1, both the generation and load increments
are not uniformly distributed in each area.
Generators & Loads connected to various buses in Area-2 is as follows :

8
Bus
No.

Anil G. Patil
Area No.

V
(p.u)

Angle
(deg)

Generation
P

Load

AREA-1
1

1.0

0.0

00

0.0

4.0

1.0

1.0

-0.93

20.0

10.0

15.0

10.7

0.98

-1.70

2.4

1.2

0.97

-1.98

7.6

0.98

-0.85

2.0

1.
6
1.5

0.97

-2.18

0.98

-0.99

50.0

0.96

-2.38

0.98

11

28

4.0

0.0

22.8

10.9

15.0

-3.44

0.0

0.98

-3.69

2.0

0.97

-2.76

10.
0
0.
0
0.
0
0.
0

Total-->

Bus
No.
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
23

Area No.
AREA-2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
Total-->

23.0

70

V
(p.u)

Angle
(deg)

1.00
1.0
1.03
1.00
0.99
0.98
0.99
0.99
1.00
1.0

-3.65
-3.81
-2.84
-3.65
-4.09
-4.25
-3.82
-3.72
-3.36
-3.71
Table 3.0

33

74.8

Generation
P
0
0
25.0
0
0
0
0
0
20.0
0
45

Load
P

0
0
10.0
0
0
0
0
0
8.0
0
18

36.9

11.2
2.0
6.2
8.2
3.5
9.0
3.2
9.5
2.2
3.2
58.2

Q
7.5
0.0
1.6
2.5
1.8
5.8
0.9
3.4
0.7
1.6
25.8

Optimal power flow simulation in deregulated environment

CASE 2 Active loading of Area2& The transfer capability from area 3 to area 2
Table 4.0
BUS#
Before
After

12
11.2
11.2

13
2.0
2.0

14
6.2
18.8

15
8.2
8.2

16
3.5
3.5

17
9.0
9.0

18
3.2
3.2

19
9.5
9.5

20
2.2
17.8

23
3.2
3.2

Ttc
58.2
86.4

From Table 4.0 shows that , The generation of area 3 increases from 45 MW to 71.0 MW and
the load at area 2 from 58.2 MW to 86.4 MW The Total transfer capability between area 3
and area 2 is 86.4 MW using the proposed technique. The overload that took place in line 2122 hindered the algorithum . The loads on bus 14 and bus 20 are the only ones to experience
an increase during the optimization process. The transfer capability between area 1and area 3
is 69.0 MW.The critical overloads observed in Area-3. Hence to avoid voltage violations at
bus 10, 21 &22 ,Reactive compensation at particular area is required
Practical Application in
MSETCL Network7 Bus 400 KV System TTC
Computation
7 Bus 400 Kv Network of MSETCL System alongwith interconnected - tie lines &
Generators is as follows: CASE-EXAMPLES(Fig(2) 7-Bus 400 Kv System) . TTC of 7bus system is evaluated is as per availability of data, for taking into consideration a Typical
day for case study & shown in Table 5.0

10

Anil G. Patil
Korady
449 MW
71 MVAR
4.01 delta

Chdpr
1854 MW
417 MVR
G

Table 5.0
TTC- 7 bus of MSETCL

G
3

Parli2
406 MW
32MVAR

Bhswl2
902 MW
48. MVAR

23.8

4
BUS#

Ttc

TTC
MW

902

79

1389

406

38.4

461

1554

4829.4

SINGLE LINEL
DIAGRAM-7 BUS
Sarni
38 MW
Fig
26 MVAR

Single L
461 MW
52 MVAR
Bhilai

Bhadravati
1554 MW
13 MVAR

CONCLUSION
Transmission open access enables power transactions to take place between remote locations
which may be separated by one or more control areas. It is therefore necessary to have a
central entity to oversee the overall system operation so that the power transactions between
different locations can be managed securely and without congestion. Total Transfer
Capability (TTC) is an important indicator of how much power can be exchanged between
two points in the system . While the TTC calculation involves several considerations
including the contingency analysis and checking stability limits, in this study only the line
power flow limits will be considered.
The OPF-based TTC calculation is one of the advanced technique which enables
transfers by increasing the load, with uniform power factor, at a specific load bus or every
load bus in the sink control area, and increasing the real power injected at a specific
generator bus or several generators in the source control area until limits are incurred. In
present deregulated area every market players playing a vital role in trading of Active
Power . After simulation, Computer results show that the proposed method is very effective,
and with good convergence characteristics in determining the TTC The main conclusions in
the paper is as follows
A new formulation for OPF is used to calculate the total transfer capability
The Objective function is the total generation and load increase on specific source and
sink nodes
The thermal limits of transmission lines ,Voltage bounds on buses ,and upper and
lower limits of generator power are considered as well as load flow Equations.
The advanced sequential quadratic programming method is extended for TTC
Calculation

Optimal power flow simulation in deregulated environment

11

An algorithum has been developed and tested on the IEEE-30 bus system Important
aspects shown in the paper i.e. Application of IEEE-30 bus TTC is also tested on
MSETCLs 7-Bus Network & compute the TTC accordingly.
Finally also concluded that, OPF based TTC approach can re-dispatch generator reactive
power outputs and optimally distribute the increment of loads and generationson the specific
buses, therefore it can reach the maximum TTC ,While the CPF technique usually gives a
conservative estimation of TTC for the lack of optimization function
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Author sincerely express thanks to Shri A.K.Lade, Superientending Engineer, Area Load
Centre, Ambazari for his moral support & permitting me for presentation. Also
very much thankful to the Chief Engineer, MSLDC,Kalwa for there
encouragement.
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[1]

A.D. Papalexopoulos, C.F. Imparato and F.F. Wu, "Large-Scale Optimal Power Flow: Effects of
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[2]

E. Liu, A.D. Papalexopoulos, W.F. Tinney, "Discrete Shunt Controls in A Newton Optimal Power Flow,"
IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 1519-1528, NOV. 1992.

[3]

Transmission Transfer Capability Task Force, Available Transfer Capability Definitions and
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[4]

V. Ajjarapu and C. Chrity, The Continuation Power Flow: A Tool for Steady State Voltage Stability
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[5]

H. D. Chinag, A. J. Flueck, K. S. Shah and N. Balu, CPFLOW: A practical Tool for Tracing Power System
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[6]

G. C. Ejebe, J. Tong, J. G. Waight, J. G. Frame, X. Wang and W. F. Tinney, Available Transfer Capability
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[7 ]

M. Shaaban, Y. Ni, H. Dai and F. Wu, Considerations in Calculating Total Transfer Capability, Proc. Of
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[8]

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R. Burchett, H. H. Happ, D. R.Vierath, and D. R.Vierath, Quadratic ally convergent optimal power flow,
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12

Anil G. Patil

[14]

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[15]

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BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS OF THE AUTHOR

Anil G. Patil graduated in Instrumentation Engineering from the Marathwada University of Aurangabad in 1987.
From 1987-89 he was a Lecturer in PVP college Pravaranagar. Joined in 1989 MSEB in T&D. Acquired additional
qualifications in PGDBM in 1992 from Nagpur University & also acquired M.E.(Electrical) . From 1994-2000 He
worked as a Assistant Engineer in State Load Despatch Centre Kalwa (M.S.) India in System
Operation/maintenance. Specialized worked in EMS system at Kalwa in 1998.From 2002-05 Worked in Area Load
Despatch centre Nagpur in System Operation. From Oct2005 Worked as Deputy Executive Engineer in ALDC
Nagpur, newly formed Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission company Limited (MSETCL) . He is also Guest
faculty in National Power training Institute (NPTI),Nagpur ,Ordinance Factory (Defence) ,YASHDA-Pune,
MSPGCL Koradi Training Centre, also Govt institutions etc. Special areas of Interest SCADA,Power System
Operation & Control, Energy Audit ,Power Trading etc. Presented various research papers on International Level in
power system era

Optimal power flow simulation in deregulated environment

13