Power Flow Analysis

Abstract

This chapter describes the power flow analysis from both analytic and algorithmic viewpoints. Section 4.1 introduces the power flow problem through a simple example and clarifies the differences between power flow and circuit analysis. Section 4.2 provides a taxonomy of the power flow problem, while Section 4.3 presents the standard power flow equations. Section 4.4 describes the most common algorithms used for solving this problem. These are the Gauss-Seidel’s method, the Newton’s method and its variants, the fast decoupled power flow and the dc power flow. A discussion about the single and distributed slack bus models and a comparative example are also included in Section 4.4. Section 4.5 provides a general mathematical framework for the power flow problem based on the continuous Newton’s method. Finally, Section 4.6 summarizes the most relevant concepts provided in this chapter.