Analysis of the Load Flow Problem in Power System Planning Studies

Olukayode A. Afolabi,Penrose Cofie,John Fuller,Warsame H. Ali,Pamela Obiomon,Emmanuel S. Kolawole

doi:10.4236/epe.2015.710048

Abstract

Load flow is an important tool used by power engineers for planning, to determine the best operation for a power system and exchange of power between utility companies. In order to have an efficient operating power system, it is necessary to determine which method is suitable and efficient for the system’s load flow analysis. A power flow analysis method may take a long time and therefore prevent achieving an accurate result to a power flow solution because of continuous changes in power demand and generations. This paper presents analysis of the load flow problem in power system planning studies. The numerical methods: Gauss-Seidel, Newton-Raphson and Fast Decoupled methods were compared for a power flow analysis solution. Simulation is carried out using Matlab for test cases of IEEE 9-Bus, IEEE 30-Bus and IEEE 57-Bus system. The simulation results were compared for number of iteration, computational time, tolerance value and convergence. The compared results show that Newton-Raphson is the most reliable method because it has the least number of iteration and converges faster.

Highlights

In a power system, power flows from generating station to the load through different branches of the network
The simulation for Gauss-Seidel, Newton-Raphson and Fast Decouple is carried out using Matlab for test cases of IEEE 9
IEEE 9 bus system represented in Table 2 consist of Bus 1 which act as a slack bus

Summary

Introduction

Power flows from generating station to the load through different branches of the network. The flow of active and reactive power is known as load flow or power flow. Load flow analysis is an important tool used by power engineers for planning and determining the steady state operation of a power system. (2015) Analysis of the Load Flow Problem in Power System Planning Studies. The power system is modeled by an electric circuit which consists of generators, transmission network and distribution network [1]

Results

Discussion

Conclusion