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Topological and Primitive Impedance based

Load Flow Method for Radial and Weakly
Meshed Distribution Systems
K. Prakash and M. Sydulu

AbstractIn this paper, an effective topological and

primitive impedance based distribution power flow algorithm
is developed for both balanced and unbalanced distribution
systems. This method fully exploits the radial structure of the
network and solves the distribution load flow directly. Using
this concept and primitive impedances of the lines, only
diagonal elements of the Distribution Load Flow (DLF)
matrix are computed and stored in single dimension vectors
to obtain the distribution load flow solution. Unlike other
traditional methods, the proposed approach does not require
any LU decomposition or Bus admittance matrix. It is robust,
time-efficient and needs very less memory for any size of the
distribution system. The proposed method is tested on a
unbalanced practical Indian distribution system and also on
various standard IEEE test systems including weakly meshed
distribution system. Results are quite promising and the
method has great potential application in the distribution
automation.
Index TermsBalanced and unbalanced distribution load
flow, radial and weakly meshed distribution system.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Power Flow is an important tool for the

analysis of distribution system and it is used in the
operational as well as in planning stages. Distribution
system with their radial structure and wide ranging
resistance and reactance values are inherently illconditioned and conventional load flow methods like
Gauss-Seidel, Newton-Raphson and fast decoupled
techniques are inefficient in solving such networks. The
recent tendency towards the distribution automation (DA)
has led the researchers to focus on robust and efficient load
flow methods. Chiang [1] has presented a distribution load
flow method by iterative solution of three fundamental
equations representing real power, reactive power and
voltage magnitudes. Das, et al. [2] have proposed a load
flow method by writing an algebraic equation for bus
voltage magnitude. The Gauss Implicit Z-matrix method
[3] is one of the most commonly used methods, however
this method does not effectively exploit the radial structure
of the distribution system and therefore, needs to find the
solution of a set of equations of the order of number of
ISTRIBUTION

Manuscript received August 25, 2009; revised January 4, 2011.

This work was supported in part by the Faculty of Engineering-Sohar
University, Oman.
K. Prakash is Research Scholar in National Institute of Technology,
Warangal, A. P., India. (e-mail: prakashkam@ieee.org).
M. Sydulu is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, National
Institute
of
Technology,
Warangal,
A.
P.,
India.
(email: sydulumaheswarapu@yahoo.co.in).
Publisher Item Identifier S 1682-0053(11)1831

buses. Some of the researchers proposed special load flow

techniques based on topological characteristics of
distribution system [4]-[5]. Most of these techniques
require new data format or some data manipulations.
Compensation based approach is proposed in [6] to solve
the distribution load flow problems in which
forward/backward sweep algorithm is adopted. A feederlateral based model is reported in [7] requires layer-lateral
based format. Jabr [8] has formulated the distribution load
flow problem as Conic Programming based Convex
Optimization Problem. Hamounda and Zeher [9] have
proposed a distribution load flow based on Kirchhoffs
laws characterized by radial configuration and laterals.
Singh, et. al. [10] presented a load flow solution for radial
and weakly meshed distribution system formulated as an
optimization problem solved by Primal dual Interior point
method. In the paper [11] for a balanced radial distribution
system, the proposed load flow algorithm requires
formation of bus-injection to branch current (BIBC) matrix
with 1s & 0s as elements and branch-current to busvoltage (BCBV) matrix with primitive impedances as
elements & distribution load flow (DLF) matrix. DLF
matrix is obtained as product of (BCBV) and (BIBC)
matrices. These three matrices require large memory space
when the proposed method applied for bigger distribution
system. Further, these three matrices contain more number
of zero elements and hence memory space is not utilized
economically, especially for large size distribution
networks. Another negative aspect of it is that, to obtain a
load flow solution it needs direct multiplication of BCBV
& BIBC matrices and DLF & current Injection column
vector matrices. This requires sufficiently large CPU time.
In this paper a classical but novel technique is
proposed with effective data structure and implementation
approach. The main aim of this paper is to develop a new
formulation for load flow method, which exploits the
topological characteristics of a balanced distribution
system. A unique effective data structure is proposed to
identify all those lines that are traced in the path
connecting the feeding bus and any selected bus. This
feature acts as a potential support in solving the
distribution load flow equations derived in terms of
primitive impedances of the lines. Unlike to other
traditional methods, the proposed approach does not
require any LU decomposition or Bus admittance matrix.
Compared to the algorithm reported in [11], the proposed
method does not require any direct matrix multiplications
and no need of formation of BIBC, BCBV and
DLF matrices. It only requires the calculation of diagonal

1682-0053/11$20 2011 ACECR

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1

4
3

2
z12

z34

z23

I5

I4

B2
I2

I3

B. Branch Current to Bus Voltage (BCBV) Matrix

The relationship between the branch currents and bus
voltages are expressed as

z45
B4

B3
B1

B5
z36
6

I6

Fig. 1. A Sample 6-Bus radial distribution system.

elements of DLF matrix in terms of the primitive

impedances of the lines. In this proposed algorithm,
sparsity technique [12] is used to identify the adjacent
buses and adjacent lines of any selected bus of the system.
The proposed distribution load flow method is robust,
time-efficient and needs very less memory even for a large
size distribution system.
II. STRUCTURE OF VARIOUS MATRICES IN PROPOSED LOAD
FLOW METHOD
It has been mentioned in the earlier sections about the
BIBC, BCBV and DLF matrices, which were explained in
the paper [11]. Consider a sample radial distribution
system as shown in the Fig. 1 for the formation of the
above matrices
A. Bus Injection to Branch Current (BIBC) matrix
For distribution systems, at a bus i the complex load is
expressed by (1) And the corresponding equivalent current
injection is given By (2)
Si

( Pi

jQi )

Ii

( Si Vi )

i = 1,2,...,n

(1)
(2)

The vector of current injections for the above sample

system is given as below
Bus No.
2
3
4
5
6
Current Injection
I2
I3 I4
I5 I6
For the system shown in Fig. 1, apply Kirchhoffs
current law (KCL), the branch currents can be expressed
in terms of equivalent current injections as
I6

B1

I2

I3

I4

I5

B2

I3

I4

I5

I6

B3

I4

I5

B4

I5

(6)

B5

I6

(7)

B1
B2

1 1 1 1 1

B3

0 0 1 1 0
0 0 0 1 0

B4
B5

0 1 1 1 1

0 0 0 0 1

(3)
(4)
(5)

I2
I3
I4
I5
I6

The above branch current equations can be rearranged

in the generalized form as below
[ B] [ BIBC ][ I ]

11

(8)

V2

V1 B1 z12

(9)

V3

V2

B2 z23

(10)

V4

V3

B3 z34

(11)

V5

V4

B4 z45

(12)

V6

V3 - B5 z36

(13)

On Substitution of (9) & (10) in (11), the voltage at bus

4 is given by
V4

V1 - B1 z12 - B2 z23 - B3 z34

(14)

Similarly, the other bus voltages can be rewritten as

V3

V1 B1 z12

B2 z23

V5

V1 B1 z12

B2 z23

V6

(15)
B3 z34

B4 z 45

(16)
(17)

V1 - B1 z12 - B2 z23 - B3 z34 - B4 z45 - B5 z36

Equations (9), (14), (15), (16), (17) can be rearranged as

below
V
V
V
V
V

V
V

z 12 0
z 12 z 23

z 12 z 23 z 34

5
6

0
0

z 12 z 23 z 34 z 45
0 z 36
z 12 z 23 0

B1
B2
B3
B4
B5

(18)

[ v] = [BCBV] [B]

Now, substitute (8) in (18) and the resulting equation is

expressed as
[ v] = [DLF][I]
(19)
where [DLF] represents distribution load flow matrix
given as
z 12

z 12

z 12

z 12 z 12 z 23
z 12 z 23
z 12 z 12 z 23 z 12 z 23 z 34

z 12

z 12

z 12 z 23
z 12 z 23 z 34

z 12 z 23
z 12 z 23

z 12 z 12 z 23 z 12 z 23 z 34 z 12 z 23 z 34 z 45
z 12 z 23
z 12 z 12 z 23
z 12 z 23
z 12 z 23
z 12 z 23 z 36

From the above DLF matrix, the following useful

observations are used in developing the proposed
topological and primitive based distribution load
flow method
1. All elements of DLF matrix (n -1) (n -1) are
complex non-zero and symmetric.
2. Diagonal elements are given by the sum of the
primitive impedances of all those lines in the path
connecting the substation bus and any selected bus.
3. Each bus-p of the network can have one unique path
from substation bus.
4. Off-diagonal p-q elements are given by the sum of
the primitive impedances of those lines which appear
common to the paths of p and q buses from
substation bus.
These observations are effectively used in proposing the

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Start

Start

set counter cntr=1;

ipathf[1]=1; ipathto[1]=1;

set pathline[1 ] =0

set the bus count i=2

Set the bus count i=2.

cntr =cntr+1; set pzc=1

i=i+1
Set counter, cntr = ipathf [ i ]

Using sparsity technique [9],

pick up the first adjacent bus-q
of bus-i

Pick up the first adjacent bus-q and first

adjacent line-k of the bus-i using sparsity
technique

ipathto[i ]=
ipathf[i ]

ipathf[i ] = cntr
pathsize[i]=pzc

yes

if q=1

yes

If q=1
no

no
Set j = ipathf [q]

set counter j=1

cntr=cntr+1
pzc=pzc+1

pathline [cntr] = pathline[j ]

pathsize[i] = pzc
ipathto[i ] = cntr

cntr= cntr+1

i = i+1

j = j+1

j= j+1

yes

yes
j

pathsize[q ]

ipathto [q]

no

pathline[cntr] = k
pathlinesize = cntr

no
no

If i < n

yes
If i < n

yes
stop

i=i+1

no

stop

Fig. 2. Flowchart of ipathf [i] and ipathto[i] vectors.

Fig. 3. Flowchart for formation of pathline vector.

TABLE I
FORMATION OF PATHLINE VECTOR OF THE 6-BUS RADIAL SYSTEM
Bus no.

Location count =j
pathline (j)

1
0

2
1

3
3
1

4
4
2

5
1

algorithm with the help of sparsity technique that exploits

the topological structure of the network.
III. PROPOSED SOLUTION METHODOLOGY
The proposed method directly determines the
distribution load flow solution without formation of any
one of the matrices like Bus-Injection to Branch Current
(BIBC), branch-current to bus-voltage (BCBV) and
distribution doad flow (DLF) matrices, but simply uses
primitive Impedances of the lines. This new algorithm
determines the diagonal elements of the DLF matrix in
terms of the primitive impedances of the lines. Split
multiplication concept is used not only to account the offdiagonal elements of the DLF matrix but also direct
determination of the [ v] elements of the equation
[ v]=[DLF] [I] without performing the multiplication of
[DLF] and [I] matrices. The proposed approach offers very
significant saving in computational burden as it avoids the

6
2

5
7
3

8
1

9
2

6
10
3

11
4

12
1

13
2

14
5

formation of BIBC, BCBV and DLF matrices without any

sacrifice in the end results. The proposed method is very
effective for small to large size distribution systems.
A. Formation of Proposed Single Dimensional Vectors
A radial distribution network has a typical tree structure
and the root of the tree would be the feeding substation
node 1. There would be a connecting path between node-1
and any other selected node. Trace all the ( n -1 ) paths and
identify those lines associated with each path. Store all
such lines of each path in a single dimensioned path-line
vector, as shown in the Table I. For example, the path
between node-1 & node-6 is having three branches 1, 2
and 5 and these are stored in reserved locations
12, 13 &14
respectively. The location reservation
information of each path is indicated by another two
integer vectors ipathf [i ] & ipathto[i ] . For a bus i
ipathf [i ] and ipathto[i ] vectors indicate the start and
end reserved location numbers for path- i . The elements

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1

z23

B4

B3
B1

I5

I4

B2
I2

respectively.
9. Update the bus voltages at all the buses.
V [i ] V [i ] [ v][i ]
10. Calculate the current Injections I [i ] with the
updated bus voltages.
11. If max (| I [i ]k 1 | - | I [i ]k |) >tolerance, then advance
the iteration count and go to step 7.
12. Print the converged load flow solution and Stop.

z45

z34

2
z12

S
B

B6

B5
z36

I3

: Current Injection

: Tie Switch

V. PROPOSED SOLUTION METHODOLOGY FOR WEAKLY

MESHED NETWORKS

I6

Fig. 4. Simple distribution system with one loop.

TABLE II
FORMATION OF IPATHF AND IPATHTO VECTORS OF THE 6-BUS RADIAL
DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

ipathf [i]
1
2
3
5
8
12

Bus no. [i]

1
2
3
4
5
6

ipathto[i]
1
2
4
7
11
14

of these vectors for the given 6-bus system are presented in

Table II. Figs. 2 and 3 shows the flow charts for the
formation of ipathf [i ] ipathto[i ] and pathline
vectors.
IV. ALGORITHM FOR PROPOSED DISTRIBUTION LOAD FLOW
METHOD
1. Read the distribution system data and form sparsity
vectors [12].
2. Form the ipathf [i ] , ipathto[i ] and pathline
vectors.
3. For a bus - i , add the primitive impedances of all
those lines that are stored in the pathline vector to
obtain the diagonal element ( Zpp[i ] ) of DLF matrix.
Similarly, calculate the diagonal elements ( Zpp[i ] )
for all other buses.
4. Initialize the Bus Voltages to 1 j 0 p.u.
5. Calculate the Power Injections and Current Injections
I [i ] at all the buses.
6. Initialize the iteration count k 1 .
7. Assign I [i ]old I [i ] for all the buses.
8. Using the vectors determined in the step 2, calculate
the [ v] elements of the equation [ v ] [DLF ][ I ] ,
for a bus i using the equation given below
n

Zpp [i ]*I [i ]+

[( Zline 1) * I [ j ] ( Zline 2) * I [ j ] ...]

j 2, j i

where Zpp is Diagonal element of DLF matrix, I [i ] ,

I [ j ] are Current Injections at bus i & bus j ,
Zline1, Zline2 are primitive impedances of set of
those lines which are common in the path-i and path-j

z 12

z 12

z 12
z 12

z 12 z
z 12 z

z 12

z 12 z

z 12
0

z 12 z
0

13

Some of the distribution feeders are serving high density

load areas created by closing tie-switches which are
normally kept in open position. The proposed method can
also be extended to weakly- meshed distribution feeders.
Existence of loops in the system does not effect the bus
current injections, but new branches will need to be added
to the system.
When a new branch say B6 is added to the sample
system in Fig. 1 forms a mesh as shown in the Fig. 4, the
new current injections at bus-5 and bus- 6 are given by
I5

I5

B6

(20)

I6

I6

B6

(21)

Due to the above new current injections at bus-5 and

bus-6, the BIBC, BCBV and DLF matrices are modified.
As discussed earlier, the proposed method does not require
to form the modified BIBC and BCBV matrices, only
requires to modify the DLF matrix.
A. Modification of Proposed DLF Matrix
To account the possible modifications for a new branch
Bk between i and j buses, the following is to be
carried out based on the observations of the elements of the
matrix shown in (22). If a new branch Bk is added
between the bus i and bus j , then subtract the
elements of the j th column from the elements i th
column in the existing DLF matrix (19) and fill these
resultant values in the off-diagonal positions of the new
k th column and k th row of the DLF matrix respectively.
Finally add all those primitive impedances of the branches
which are involved in forming the weakly mesh and fill
it as the diagonal element of the k th row of the DLF
matrix (22).
The modified DLF matrix for the sample system with
one loop shown in the Fig. 4 is expressed in (22).
The general form of the load flow equation using the
modified DLF matrix is expressed as
V
0

DLF

mod

I
Bk

(23)

0
0

z 12

z 12

z 12

23

z 12 z 23
z 12 z 23 z 34

z 12 z 23
z 12 z 23 z 34

z 12 z 23
z 12 z 23

z 34

23

z 12 z

z 12 z 23 z 34 z 45

z 12 z 23

z 34 z 45

z 12 z 23
z 34 z 45

z 12 z 23 z 36
z 36

23

23

23

z 34

z 12 z 23
z 34

z 34

(22)

z 36
z 4 5 z 36 z

56

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1.01
1
0.99

Voltage in p.u

0.98
0.97
0.96
0.95
0.94
0.93
0.92
0.91

Fig. 5. Three phase line section model.

1.05
1

1.05

0.95

0.9

0.95

Voltage in p.u

Voltage in p.u

7
8
9
Bu Num ber

10

11

12

13

14

15

Fig. 7. Load flow result of 15-bus radial distribution system.

0.85
0.8

0.9
0.85

0.75
1

5
6
Bus Num ber

0.75

Fig. 6. Load flow result of 10-bus radial distribution system.

In (23), the element concerned to the newly added B k

branch in the [ V ] portion is taken as zero since there is
no extra node added in the system. Now by Applying,
Krons reduction technique [11], the additionally added
k th row and k th column of the above modified DLF
matrix, can be eliminated and the resulting equation is
given below as
V

DLF

mod

VI. PROPOSED UNBALANCED THREE PHASE DISTRIBUTION

LOAD FLOW METHOD
Fig. 5 shows a three-phase line section between bus- i
and bus- j . The primitive impedance of this line can be
solved using method developed by Carson and Lewis [13].
A 4 4 matrix which takes into account the self and
mutual coupling effects of the unbalanced three phase line
section is expressed as
z aa

z ab

z ac

z an

z ba

z bb

z bc

z bn

z ca z cb
z na z nb

z cc
z nc

z cn
z nn

(25)

After Krons reduction technique [13] is applied, the

above 4 4 matrix is then reduced to phase impedance
3 3 matrix which includes the effects of the neutral or
ground wire as shown as
Zabc

z aa
z ba
z ca

z ab
z bb

z ac
z bc

z cb

z cc

n
n

(26)

The relation between the bus voltages and branch currents

of the three phase line can be expressed as

11

13

15
17 19
Bus Number

21

23

25

27

29

31

Fig. 8. Load flow result of 31-bus radial distribution system.

TABLE III
RESULTS OF THE PROPOSED METHOD TESTED ON STANDARD SYSTEMS
Test System
10 bus
15 bus
31 bus
34 bus
69 bus
85 bus
119 bus

(24)

In this proposed solution technique for weakly meshed

systems requires minor modification in the DLF matrix.
Therefore, the proposed method can offer the load
flow solution very effectively for weakly meshed
distribution systems.

Zabcn

0.8

10

V
V
V

a
b
c

V
V
V

Active Power Loss

(kW)
783.756
61.78
1104.03
221.67
224.97
315.60
1296

z aa
z ba

z ca

z ab
z bb

z ac
z bc

z cb

z cc

Reactive Power Loss

(kVar)
1036.45
57.28
1038.57
65.09
102.15
198.29
978.04

I Aa
I Bb

I Cc

(27)

In a three-phase line if any of the phases are not present,

then its corresponding row and column elements in the
matrix contains zeros.
The above proposed algorithm can be extended to a
multi phase line section or bus easily. For example, if a
three-phase line connected between bus- i and bus- j ,
then its corresponding branch Bi of [ B ] matrix will be a
3 1 vector, +1 element in the BIBC matrix is replaced by
a 3 3 identity sub matrix and zij element in the BCBV
matrix is replaced by 3 3 primitive line impedance
matrix. Similarly the elements at each bus of DLF matrix
are 3 3 sub matrices.
VII. TEST RESULTS
The proposed radial distribution load flow program is
implemented using Turbo C++ language and tested on
Windows-XP based Pentium-IV computer with 2.40GHz
and 256 MB RAM. Two methods were used in the tests,
and the convergence tolerance was at 0.001 p.u.
Method 1: The method in reported by Jen- Hao Teng [11].
Method 2: The proposed algorithm.
The above methods are compared on the basis of their
accuracy and performance parameters like execution time
and iterations.

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15

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1.01

1
0.99

Voltage in p.u

0.98
0.97
0.96
0.95
0.94
0.93
0.92
0.91
1

11

13

15
17
19
21
Bus Num ber

23

25

27

29

31

33

Fig. 12. Load flow result of 119-bus radial distribution system.

Fig. 9. Load flow result of 34-bus radial distribution system.

1.02
1

Voltage in p.u

0.98
0.96
0.94
0.92
0.9
0.88
0.86
1

10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49 52 55 58 61 64 67
Bus num ber

Fig. 10. Load flow result of 69-bus radial distribution system.

TABLE V
LOAD FLOW RESULTS OF 33-BUS DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

1.05

Bus
Number

Voltage in p.u

Fig. 13. IEEE 33-Bus distribution system with 5 tie-lines.

0.95

0.9

0.85

0.8
1

13 17 21

25 29

33 37 41 45 49 53
Bus Num be r

57 61

65 69 73

77 81 85

Fig. 11. Load flow result of 85-bus radial distribution system.

TABLE IV
COMPARISON OF EXECUTION TIME AND NUMBER OF ITERATIONS
Test
System
10 bus
15 bus
31 bus
34 bus
69 bus
85 bus
119 bus

Method-1
Execution Time (ms)
and No. of Iterations
3.861
6
5.742
3
6.039
5
7.530
3
-

Method-2
Execution Time (ms)
and No. of Iterations
2.178
6
2.673
3
4.554
5
5.445
3
6.732
4
7.634
4
7.864
5

A. Test Results of Balanced Radial Distribution Systems

The proposed distribution load flow method was tested
on IEEE 10 bus [14], IEEE 15 bus [2], IEEE 31bus [15],
IEEE 34 bus [16], IEEE 69 bus [17], IEEE 85 bus [2], and
119 bus [18] radial distribution systems and the load flow
results obtained are shown in Fig. 6, Fig. 7, Fig. 8, Fig. 9,
Fig. 10, Fig. 11 and Fig. 12 respectively. Table III shows
the active power and reactive power losses occurred in the
various test systems. Voltage profile of various buses and
losses in both methods are identical. Table IV shows the
execution time and number of iterations taken by the
proposed method and the method reported in [11] on
various balanced test systems. It is to be noted that the
proposed method is faster than the other method [11].
There was a compiling problem while using the method in
[11] to obtain the load flow solution for 69 bus, 85 bus,
and 119 bus systems, indicating the large size of two
dimensional array declarations of BIBC, BCBV and DLF

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
Active power
loss(KW)
Reactive power
loss (KVar)

Bus Voltage
magnitude(p.u )for
radial system
1
0.997033
0.982943
0.975465
0.968071
0.949678
0.946194
0.941352
0.935086
0.929274
0.928414
0.926915
0.920805
0.91854
0.917128
0.915761
0.913735
0.913128
0.996505
0.992927
0.992223
0.991585
0.979358
0.972687
0.969363
0.94775
0.945187
0.933753
0.925539
0.921983
0.917824
0.916909
0.916626

Bus Voltage magnitude

(p.u ) for weakly meshed
system
1
0.997088
0.986074
0.982169
0.978491
0.969843
0.968875
0.967647
0.963308
0.961969
0.96183
0.961698
0.958822
0.95789
0.957766
0.956115
0.953059
0.952117
0.995388
0.981337
0.977419
0.974856
0.980707
0.97026
0.96319
0.968753
0.967359
0.961553
0.957572
0.954292
0.950887
0.950235
0.950306

202.659

118.379578

135.13

81.407607

matrices which contain complex elements. But this

problem is not present in the proposed method for the
same above test systems. In fact, the sparsity based vectors
and ipathf , ipathto , and pathline vectors are acting as
potential support in the proposed algorithm to reduce
execution time & memory requirement for large
distribution systems. This aspect would go as strength of

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2a
1a

3a

2b

4b

5b

1b
4c

6c

1c
sub-stn
bus

2c
8c
7c

Fig. 14. 8-Bus three phase distribution system.

Fig. 16. A Practical distribution feeder in India.
TABLE VIII
COMPARISON OF METHOD-1 AND PROPOSED METHOD-2
For 8-bus system
Execution Time (ms)
No of Iterations
Convergence Criteria

Fig. 15. Convergence characteristic of 8-bus system using proposed method.

TABLE VI
COMPARISON OF TEST RESULTS OF IEEE 33-BUS SYSTEM WITH 5 TIE LINES
IEEE 33-bus [20]
Distribution System
Execution Time (s)
No of Iterations
Convergence Criteria

Primal Dual Interior

Method [10]
0.26
10
0.001

Proposed Method
0.0005
3
0.001

TABLE VII
RESULT OF THE PROPOSED METHOD TESTED ON IEEE 8-BUS SYSTEM
Bus Number
1
1
1
2
2
2
3
4
4
5
6
7
8

Voltage
Magnitude(p.u.)
1.000000
1.000000
1.000000
0.983917
0.971066
0.969667
0.983178
0.965161
0.966824
0.963999
0.964839
0.968319
0.967042

Angle (rad)

Phase

0.00000
-2.094408
2.094408
0.003197
-2.090163
2.093914
0.003137
-2.089749
2.093230
-2.089832
2.093065
2.093794
2.093661

A
B
C
A
B
C
A
B
C
B
C
C
C

the proposed algorithm without any convergence problems

even on large distribution systems.
B. Test Results of Weakly Meshed Systems
The proposed solution methodology for weakly meshed
networks is tested on the standard IEEE 33-bus
distribution system having five tie-lines [19] shown in Fig.
13. Table V shows the obtained load flow results of 33-bus
distribution system for both radial and weakly meshed
systems. The obtained results are found similar to the
results as reported in [10]. Table VI shows the comparison
of the primal dual interior method [10] and the proposed
method in terms of execution time and iterations taken by
the methods. It clearly shows that the proposed method is
much faster than the other method. The obtained load flow
results for the same system are also compared with the
results of Loop Based Load Flow method [20] but the
authors have not mentioned the execution time and
iterations taken by the system.

Method -1
3.168
3
0.0001

Method -2
0.891
3
0.0001

TABLE IX
LOAD DATA FOR THE FEEDER SHOWN IN FIG. 16
Bus
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19

Phase-A
kW
kVar
0
0
34.6
16.7
36.7
17.8
13.5
6.5
21.6
10.5
14
6.8
32.4
15.7
24.8
12
41
19.9
11.3
5.5
24.8
12
32.4
15.7
14.6
7.1
10.3
5
14.6
7.1
25.9
12.6
21.6
10.5
17.8
8.6
29.2
14.1

Phase-B
kW
kVar
0
0
17.3
8.4
17.3
8.4
18.9
9.2
17.3
8.4
10.3
5
27
13.1
17.8
8.6
49.7
24.1
14
6.8
24.8
12
27
13.1
17.8
8.6
10.3
5
16.2
7.8
34.6
16.7
16.2
7.8
17.8
8.6
33.5
16.2

Phase-C
kW
KVar
0
0
34.6
16.7
32.4
15.7
21.6
10.5
15.1
7.3
9.7
4.7
27
13.1
11.3
5.5
44.3
21.4
8.6
4.2
36.7
17.8
27
13.1
21.6
10.5
13.5
6.5
23.2
11.2
25.9
12.6
16.2
7.8
18.4
8.9
23.8
11.5

C. Test Results of Three Phase Distribution System

The proposed method is tested on IEEE 8-bus three
phase unbalanced radial distribution system as shown in
Fig. 14 and the load flow results obtained are shown in
Table VII. The load flow results are found similar and
accurate when compared to the results obtained using the
method in [11]. Fig. 15 shows the convergence
characteristic of 8-bus distribution system using proposed
three phase load flow method. Table VIII shows the
execution time and number of iterations taken by the
proposed method and the method reported in [11] on the
test system. It is observed that the proposed method is
faster than the other method [11]. In fact, the sparsity
based vectors and ipathf , ipathto , and pathline vectors
are acting as potential support in the proposed algorithm to
reduce execution time & memory requirement.
Fig. 16 shows the practical unbalanced three phase
distribution feeder emanating from Pathardhi 132/11KVGrid substation in India [21]. The Load data, Network
data, and Line data are given in Table IX, Table X, and
Table XI, respectively. Using the proposed method, for
this practical system, shown in Fig. 16, the three
phase load flow solution has taken only three iterations for

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TABLE X
LINE DATA FOR THE FEEDER SHOWN IN FIG. 16

Line
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18

From Bus
1
2
2
4
4
6
6
8
9
10
11
11
14
14
10
12
12
15

To Bus
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
14
13
17
18
12
16
15
19

Line
No.

Phase Impedance Matrix (p.u.)

For Base kVA=1000,BASE KV=11

2,7,
12

0.0387+j0.0167 0.0129+j0.0056 0.0129+j0.0056

0.0129+j0.0056 0.0387+j0.0167 0.0129+j0.0056
0.0129+j0.0056 0.0129+j0.0056 0.0387+j0.0167
0.0323+j0.0139 0.0108+j0.0046 0.0108+j0.0046
0.0108+j0.0046 0.0323+j0.0139 0.0108+j0.0046
0.0108+j0.0046 0.0108+j0.0046 0.0323+j0.0139

3,10,
15

0.0193+j0.0083 0.0064+j0.0028 0.0064+j0.0028

0.0064+j0.0028 0.0193+j0.0083 0.0064+j0.0028
0.0064+j0.0028 0.0064+j0.0028 0.0193+j0.0083

1,8,
16

5,6,
11

9,17

13

14

18

TABLE XII
LOAD FLOW RESULT OF THE PRACTICAL 19-BUS DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

Length (km)
3
4
1.5
1.5
1
2
2.5
3
5
1.5
1
5
3.5
4
1.5
6
5
4

TABLE XI
PHASE IMPEDANCE MATRIX OF THE LINES FOR FEEDER SHOWN IN FIG. 16

0.0097+j0.0042 0.0032+j0.0014 0.0032+j0.0014

0.0032+j0.0014 0.0097+j0.0042 0.0032+j0.0014
0.0032+j0.0014 0.0032+j0.0014 0.0097+j0.0042
0.0129+j0.0055 0.0043+j0.0018 0.0043+j0.0018
0.0043+j0.0018 0.0129+j0.0055 0.0043+j0.0018
0.0043+j0.0018 0.0043+j0.0018 0.0129+j0.0055
0.0645+j0.0278 0.0215+j0.0093 0.0215+j0.0093
0.0215+j0.0093 0.0645+j0.0278 0.0215+j0.0093
0.0215+j0.0093 0.0215+j0.0093 0.0645+j0.0278
0.0451+j0.0194 0.015+j0.0065 0.015+j0.0065
0.015+j0.0065 0.0451+j0.0194 0.015+j0.0065
0.015+j0.0065 0.015+j0.0065 0.0451+j0.0194
0.0258+j0.0111 0.0086+j0.0037 0.0086+j0.0037
0.0086+j0.0037 0.0258+j0.0111 0.0086+j0.0037
0.0086+j0.0037 0.0086+j0.0037 0.0258+j0.0111
0.0516+j0.0222 0.0172+j0.0074 0.0172+j0.0074
0.0172+j0.0074 0.0516+j0.0222 0.0172+j0.0074
0.0172+j0.0074 0.0172+j0.0074 0.0516+j0.0222

convergence with a tolerance value of 0.00001 p.u and the

execution time is 4.37 ms. The load flow results are
presented in the Table XII.
VIII. CONCLUSIONS
A simple and efficient load flow technique for balanced
and unbalanced distribution networks has been proposed.
It has the support of proposed effective data structure for
solving the radial and weakly meshed distribution
networks. It has been found that the method has good
and faster convergence characteristics compared with other
existing methods. Unlike other traditional methods, the

17

Bus no.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19

Va (p.u)
1
0.986013
0.984878
0.980327
0.980132
0.976896
0.976522
0.969671
0.961967
0.951174
0.94977
0.94953
0.949437
0.949205
0.947254
0.948754
0.948273
0.948819
0.945969

Vb (p.u)
0.999978
0.987819
0.987589
0.982023
0.981887
0.978537
0.978263
0.970754
0.961997
0.950279
0.948947
0.948364
0.948468
0.948486
0.945514
0.947082
0.947913
0.9481
0.94388

Vc (p.u)
0.999978
0.986566
0.985651
0.981028
0.980925
0.977725
0.977454
0.970364
0.961738
0.949733
0.947836
0.948145
0.947167
0.947304
0.945551
0.947359
0.946739
0.946894
0.944666

proposed approach does not require any LU decomposition

or Bus admittance matrix. The proposed algorithm is
robust, time-efficient and needs very less memory for any
size of the distribution system and find great potential
application in the distribution automation.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support and
facilities extended by the Department of Electrical
Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Warangal
and Vaagdevi College of Engineering, Warangal (A.P)
India.
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Conf. on Global Connectivity in Energy, Computer Communication
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APPENDIX A
The various vectors used in [12] for sparsity technique
are shown in Tables A-I, and A-II.
The reserved locations information for bus-i
are indicated by ITAGF[i] and ITAGTO[i] vectors. ADJQ
vector is used to store adjacent bus number-q and ADJL
vector is used to store adjacent line number of bus-i.

TABLE A-I
FORMATION OF ITAGF[I] AND ITAGTO[I] VECTORS FOR THE 6-BUS
SYSTEM
Bus no.-i
1
2
3
4
5
6

ITAGF[i]
1
2
4
7
9
10

ITAGTO[i]
1
3
6
8
9
10

TABLE A-II
FORMATION OF ADJQ[J] AND ADJL[J] VECTORS FOR THE 6-BUS SYSTEM
Bus no.
Location
count =j
ADJQ[j]
ADJL[j]

2
3

3
6

4
8

10

2
1

1
1

3
2

2
2

4
3

6
5

3
3

5
4

4
4

3
5

K. Prakash received his B.E. (Electrical and Electronics Engineering, 1999)

from University of Madras, M. Tech. (Power Systems, 2003) from National
Institute of Technology, Warangal, India. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D.
(Power Systems Engineering) in National Institute of Technology, Warangal,
Andhra Pradesh, India. His areas of interest include Distribution system
studies, meta-heuristic techniques and economic operation of power systems.
He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
(IEEE).
M. Sydulu received his B. Tech. (Electrical Engineering, 1978), M. Tech.
(Power Systems, 1980), Ph.D. (Electrical Engineering-Power Systems,
1993), all degrees from Regional Engineering College, Warangal, Andhra
Pradesh, India. His areas of interest include Real Time power system
operation and control, ANN, fuzzy logic and genetic algorithm applications
in power systems, distribution system studies, economic operation, reactive
power planning and management. Presently he is working as a Professor in
the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Institute of Technology,
Warangal (formerly RECW), India.
Dr. M. Sydulu is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers (IEEE).

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