Power Flow

Department of Electrical Engineering

POWER SYSTEM ANALYSIS
1
400 MVA
15 kV
400 MVA
15/345 kV
T1
T2
800 MVA
345/15 kV
800 MVA
15 kV
520 MVA
80 MW 40 Mvar
280 Mvar 800 MW
Line 3
345 kV
L
i
n
e

2

L
i
n
e

1

345 kV
100 mi
345 kV
200 mi
50 mi
1 4 3
2
5
Single-line diagram
The N-R Power Flow: 5-bus Example
2

Bus

Type
V
per
unit
o
degrees
P
G

per
unit
Q
G

per
unit
P
L

per
unit
Q
L

per
unit
Q
Gmax

per
unit
Q
Gmin

per
unit
1 Swing 1.0 0 0 0
2 Load 0 0 8.0 2.8
3 Constant
voltage
1.05 5.2 0.8 0.4 4.0 -2.8
4 Load 0 0 0 0
5 Load 0 0 0 0
Table 1.
Bus input
data


Bus-to-
Bus

R
per unit

X
per unit

G
per unit

B
per unit
Maximum
MVA
per unit
2-4 0.0090 0.100 0 1.72 12.0
2-5 0.0045 0.050 0 0.88 12.0
4-5 0.00225 0.025 0 0.44 12.0
Table 2.
Line input data
The N-R Power Flow: 5-bus Example
3



Bus-to-
Bus

R
per
unit

X
per
unit

G
c
per
unit

B
m
per
unit

Maximum
MVA
per unit
Maximum
TAP
Setting
per unit
1-5 0.00150 0.02 0 0 6.0
3-4 0.00075 0.01 0 0 10.0
Table 3.
Transformer
input data
Bus Input Data Unknowns
1 V
1
= 1.0, o
1
= 0 P
1
, Q
1
2 P
2
= P
G2
-P
L2
= -8
Q
2
= Q
G2
-Q
L2
= -2.8
V
2
, o
2

3 V
3
= 1.05
P
3
= P
G3
-P
L3
= 4.4
Q
3
, o
3

4 P
4
= 0, Q
4
= 0 V
4
, o
4

5 P
5
= 0, Q
5
= 0 V
5
, o
5

Table 4. Input data
and unknowns
The N-R Power Flow: 5-bus Example
4
Ybus Details
0
23 21
= = Y Y
unit per j
j jX R
Y 91964 . 9 89276 . 0
1 . 0 009 . 0
1 1
'
24
'
24
24
+ =
+

=
+

=
unit per j
j jX R
Y 83932 . 19 78552 . 1
05 . 0 0045 . 0
1 1
'
25
'
25
25
+ =
+

=
+

=
2 2
1 1
'
25
'
24
'
25
'
25
'
24
'
24
22
B
j
B
j
jX R jX R
Y + +
+
+
+
=
2
88 . 0
2
72 . 1
) 83932 . 19 78552 . 1 ( ) 91964 . 9 89276 . 0 ( j j j j + + + =
unit per j Z = = 624 . 84 5847 . 28 4590 . 28 67828 . 2
Elements of Y
bus
connected to bus 2
5
] ) 0 ( ) 0 ( cos[ ){ 0 ( ) ( ) 0 (
21 1 2 1 21 2 2 2 2 2
u o o = = A V Y V P x P P P
] ) 0 ( ) 0 ( cos[ ] cos[
23 3 2 3 23 22 2 22
u o o u + + V Y V Y
] ) 0 ( ) 0 ( cos[
24 4 2 4 24
u o o + V Y
]} ) 0 ( ) 0 ( cos[
25 5 2 5 25
u o o + V Y
) 624 . 84 cos( ) 0 . 1 ( 5847 . 28 { 0 . 1 0 . 8 =
) 143 . 95 cos( ) 0 . 1 ( 95972 . 9 +
)} 143 . 95 cos( ) 0 . 1 ( 9159 . 19 +
unit per 99972 . 7 ) 10 89 . 2 ( 0 . 8
4
= =

] ) 0 ( ) 0 ( sin[ ) 0 ( ) 0 ( ) 0 ( 1
24 4 2 4 24 2 24
u o o = V Y V J
] 143 . 95 sin[ ) 0 . 1 )( 95972 . 9 )( 0 . 1 ( =
unit per 91964 . 9 =
And the Hand Calculation Details!
6
Good Power System Operation
Good power system operation requires that there be no
reliability violations for either the current condition or
in the event of statistically likely contingencies
Reliability requires as a minimum that there be no
transmission line/transformer limit violations and that bus
voltages be within acceptable limits (perhaps 0.95 to 1.08)
Example contingencies are the loss of any single device. This
is known as n-1 reliability.
7
Power Flow And Design
One common usage of the power flow is to determine
how the system should be modified to remove
contingencies problems or serve new load
In an operational context this requires working with the
existing electric grid
In a planning context additions to the grid can be considered
In the next example we look at how to remove the
existing contingency violations while serving new load.
8
Generation Changes and The Slack Bus
The power flow is a steady-state analysis tool, so the
assumption is total load plus losses is always equal to
total generation
Generation mismatch is made up at the slack bus
When doing generation change power flow studies one
always needs to be cognizant of where the generation is
being made up
Common options include system slack, distributed across
multiple generators by participation factors or by economics

9
Real-sized Power Flow Cases
Real power flow studies are usually done with cases
with many thousands of buses
Buses are usually group in to various balancing authority
areas, with each area doing its own interchange control
Cases also model a variety of different automatic
control devices, such as generator reactive power limits,
load tap changing transformers, phase shifting
transformers, switched capacitors, HVDC transmission
lines, and (potentially) FACTS devices
10
Sparse Matrices and Large Systems
Since for realistic power systems the model sizes are
quite large, this means the Ybus and Jacobian matrices
are also large.
However, most elements in these matrices are zero,
therefore special techniques, known as sparse
matrix/vector methods, can be used to store the values
and solve the power flow
Without these techniques large systems would be essentially
unsolvable.
11
DC Power Flow
The DC power flow makes the most severe
approximations:
completely ignore reactive power, assume all the voltages
are always 1.0 per unit, ignore line conductance
This makes the power flow a linear set of equations,
which can be solved directly






1
= B P
12
Power System Control
A major problem with power system operation is
the limited capacity of the transmission system
lines/transformers have limits (usually thermal)
no direct way of controlling flow down a transmission
line (e.g., there are no valves to close to limit flow)
open transmission system access associated with industry
restructuring is stressing the system in new ways
We need to indirectly control transmission line flow
by changing the generator outputs
13
DC Power Flow Example
14
Indirect Transmission Line Control
What we would like to determine is how a change in
generation at bus k affects the power flow on a line
from bus i to bus j.
The assumption is
that the change
in generation is
absorbed by the
slack bus
15
Power Flow Simulation - Before
One way to determine the impact of a generator change
is to compare a before/after power flow.
For example below is a three bus case with an overload
Z for all lines = j0.1
One Two
200 MW
100 MVR
200.0 MW
71.0 MVR
Three 1.000 pu
0 MW
64 MVR
131.9 MW
68.1 MW
68.1 MW
124%
16
Analytic Calculation of Sensitivities
Calculating control sensitivities by repeat power
flow solutions is tedious and would require many
power flow solutions. An alternative approach is to
analytically calculate these values
The power flow from bus i to bus j is
sin( )
So We just need to get
i j i j
ij i j
ij ij
i j ij
ij
ij Gk
V V
P
X X
P
X P
u u
u u
u u u

~ ~
A A A
A ~
A
17
Analytic Sensitivities
1
From the fast decoupled power flow we know
( )
So to get the change in due to a change of
generation at bus k, just set ( ) equal to
all zeros except a minus one at position k.
0
1
0

A = A
A
A

A =

B P x

P x
P Bus k

(
(
(

(
(
(
(

18
Three Bus Sensitivity Example
line
bus
1
2
3
For the previous three bus case with Z 0.1
20 10 10
20 10
10 20 10
10 20
10 10 20
Hence for a change of generation at bus 3
20 10 0 0.0333
10 20 1 0.0667
j
j
u
u

=

(

(
(
= =
(
(

(

A
( ( (
= =
( ( (
A

Y B
3 to 1
3 to 2 2 to 1
0.0667 0
Then P 0.667 pu
0.1
P 0.333 pu P 0.333 pu
(
(

A = =
A = A =
19
Balancing Authority Areas
An balancing authority area (use to be called
operating areas) has traditionally represented
the portion of the interconnected electric grid
operated by a single utility
Transmission lines that join two areas are
known as tie-lines.
The net power out of an area is the sum of the
flow on its tie-lines.
The flow out of an area is equal to

total gen - total load - total losses = tie-flow

20
Area Control Error (ACE)
The area control error (ace) is the difference
between the actual flow out of an area and
the scheduled flow, plus a frequency
component


Ideally the ACE should always be zero.
Because the load is constantly changing, each
utility must constantly change its generation
to chase the ACE.
int sched
ace 10 P P f | = + A
21
Automatic Generation Control
Most utilities use automatic generation
control (AGC) to automatically change their
generation to keep their ACE close to zero.
Usually the utility control center calculates
ACE based upon tie-line flows; then the
AGC module sends control signals out to the
generators every couple seconds.
22
Power Transactions
Power transactions are contracts between
generators and loads to do power
transactions.
Contracts can be for any amount of time at
any price for any amount of power.
Scheduled power transactions are
implemented by modifying the value of P
sched

used in the ACE calculation

23
PTDFs
Power transfer distribution factors (PTDFs) show
the linear impact of a transfer of power.
PTDFs calculated using the fast decoupled power
flow B matrix

1
( )
Once we know we can derive the change in
the transmission line flows
Except now we modify several elements in ( ),
in portion to how the specified generators would
participate in the pow

A = A
A
A
B P x

P x
er transfer
24
Line Outage Distribution Factors (LODFS)
LODFs are used to approximate the change in the
flow on one line caused by the outage of a second
line
typically they are only used to determine the change in
the MW flow
LODFs are used extensively in real-time operations
LODFs are state-independent but do dependent on the
assumed network topology


, l l k k
P LODF P A =
25
Flowgates
The real-time loading of the power grid is accessed
via flowgates
A flowgate flow is the real power flow on one or
more transmission element for either base case
conditions or a single contingency
contingent flows are determined using LODFs
Flowgates are used as proxies for other types of
limits, such as voltage or stability limits
Flowgates are calculated using a spreadsheet