APSA-Experiment 2: Power Flow Solution

Objectives
The objectives of this experiment are:
1) To familiarize more with the main components of a power system
2) To incorporate any alteration/modification in the power system
3) To edit any generation and/or load data
4) To calculate the power-flow solution
5) To investigate the overloading of any equipment and voltage limit at any busbar
6) To perform corrective action for removing overloading and voltage violation.

Introduction
An electric power system consists of three principal parts: the generation, the transmission and
distribution lines, and the loads. Generating stations produce electric power and deliver it to the
customers through transmission and distribution lines. Transmission lines are the connecting links
between the generating stations and the distribution systems and interconnect with other power
systems. A distribution system connects all the individual loads to the transmission lines at
substations, which perform voltage transformation and switching functions.
Under normal conditions, electric power systems operate at their steady-state mode and the basic
calculation required for determining the characteristic of this state is termed load-flow or power-
flow study. The main objective of the power-flow solution calculations is to determine the steady-
state operating characteristics of the power generation/transmission system for a given set of loads.
The solution is expected to provide information of voltage magnitudes and angles at all buses,
active and reactive power flows in the individual transmission lines, transmission line losses, and
the reactive power generated or absorbed at voltage-controlled buses. The great importance of
power-flow studies is in planning the future expansion of power systems as well as in determining
the best operation of the existing system without overloading any equipment and to keep bus
voltage magnitudes within specified limits imposed by the country related standards.
The anticipated operating conditions must be pre-defined for each study. At each bus except one,
the net real power injected into the network must be specified. The power drawn by any load is
the negative power input to the system. The power generated by any generator is the positive power
input to the system. In addition, at these buses either the net flow of reactive power into the network
or the magnitude of the voltage must be specified; that is, at each bus a decision is required whether
the voltage magnitude or the reactive-power flow is to be maintained constant. The usual case is
to specify reactive power at load buses and voltage magnitude at generator buses. In digital
computer programs provision is made for the calculation to consider voltage to be maintained
constant at a bus only, as long as the reactive-power generation remains within designated limits.
The bus, at which real-power flow is not specified, called the swing or slack bus, is usually a bus
to which a generator (usually the largest one) is connected. Obviously, the net power flow to the
system cannot be fixed in advance at every bus because the power losses in the system are not
known until the study is completed. The generators at the swing bus supply the difference between
the specified real power into the system at the other buses and the total system output plus losses.

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Both voltage magnitude and angle are specified at the swing bus. As part of the solution, the
computer program determines real and reactive powers at this bus.
Power/load-flow study of a power system deals with four variables at any bus. They are P, Q, V,
and . Depending on the type of bus, two of them are specified and the remaining two are
determined by the power-flow study.

Software2
The ‘Power World Simulator’ software demo version will be used to study the power flow in the
test power systems.

Test Systems
One Five Four Three
395 MW 520 MW
114 MVR 337 MVR

1.000 pu 1.000 pu 1.000 pu 80 MW

0.000 Deg 0.000 Deg 0.000 Deg 40 MVR
1.050 pu
0.000 Deg

1.000 pu Two
0.000 Deg
800 MW
280 MVR
0.0 MVR
Figure 2-1 Test system 1 (File: Example6_14)

One Five Four Three

395 MW 520 MW
0 MVR 0 MVR

1.000 pu 1.000 pu 1.000 pu 80 MW

0.000 Deg 0.000 Deg 0.000 Deg 40 MVR
1.000 pu
0.000 Deg

1.000 pu Two
0.000 Deg

800 MW
280 MVR
Figure 2-2 Test system2 (File: Example6_9)

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Click on the link here to download the “Simulator 20 Glover, Overbye & Sarma Edition” with all the textbook
examples and problems case study networks.

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 One Five Four Three
395 MW 520 MW
114 MVR 337 MVR

1.0000 tap
1.000 pu 1.000 pu 1.000 pu 80 MW
0.000 Deg 0.000 Deg 0.000 Deg 40 MVR
1.050 pu
0.000 Deg
Total Real Power Losses: 34.80 MW

1.000 pu Two
0.000 Deg

800 MW
280 MVR
Figure 2-3 Test system 3 (File: Problem6_49)

Procedure & Results

General Note: Do not save any change you have made in the original file. Save the changes in a
new file. Record all the results and observation.
Part I:
1. Launch the program by double clicking on the POWER WORLD SIMULATOR icon on the
desktop.
2. Load PowerWorld Simulator Test system 1 (see Figure 2-1). Right click on each symbol, and check
out what they represent.
i) Using the existing information in the file, run the simulation, by selecting Simulation,
Newton-Raphson Power Flow. Note down the voltage at bus 2, V2 and the total real and
reactive power losses (total real and reactive losses are shown on the Case Information,
Case Summary dialog).
ii) Determine the MVAr rating of the shunt capacitor bank so that V2 can be increased to 1.00
per unit (to vary the capacitor’s nominal MVAr rating, right click on the capacitor symbol
to view the Switched Shunt dialog and then change the Nominal MVAr field). Run the
simulation using the Newton-Raphson Power Flow method again.
iii) Determine the effect of this capacitor bank on line loadings and the total real power losses.

Part II:
3. Load PowerWorld Simulator test system 2 (see Figure 2-2).
i) Click on the Edit Mode. Right click on the transmission line between buses 2 and 4, and click
on the Information Dialog. Note down the parameters of the transmission line 2-4. Run the
simulation using Newton-Raphson Power Flow, and note down your results in the column
‘Before new line’ in Table 2-1. To obtain the percentage loading of the branch between buses,
right click the transmission line, go to Line Information Dialog.
ii) Insert a second line between buses 2 and 4. Give the new line a circuit identifier of “2” to
distinguish it from the existing line (go to Insert, Transmission Line). The line parameters of
the added line should be identical to those of the existing line 2 - 4. Run the simulation using
Newton-Raphson Power Flow, and note down your results in the column ‘After new line’ in
Table 2-1.

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 Table 2-1
Before new line After new line
Bus voltage V2 (p.u)

Total real power losses (MW)

Line flow in branch between buses 1 and 5 at bus 1 (% loading)

Line flow in branch between buses 2 and 4 at bus 2 (% loading)

Line flow in branch between buses 2 and 5 at bus 2 (% loading)

Line flow in branch between buses 3 and 4 at bus 3 (% loading)

Line flow in branch between buses 4 and 5 at bus 4 (% loading)

iii) Using the original file of Test system 2, change the voltage set point of generator 3 between 1.00
and 1.08 per unit in 0.2 per-unit steps. Using Newton-Raphson Power Flow, complete Table 2-2.
Table 2-2
V3 Reactive power output of generator 3 V2 Total real power losses

Part III:
4. Load Test System 3 (see Figure 2-3). This case is similar to Test system 2, except that the transformer
between buses 1 and 5 is now a tap-changing transformer. Vary the tap setting between 0.975 and 1.1
with a tap size of 0.025, and complete Table 2-3 after performing the Power Flow study.
Table 2-3
Tap Setting Reactive output power of V5 V2 Total real power
Generator 1 losses

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Questions
1) State briefly what you have learned from this experiment.
2) List the specified variables for each bus of all the systems studied.
3) What is the information obtained from the power-flow solution? How can this information
be used for system planning or system expansion?

Lab Assessment
 On-Spot evaluation (20%).
 Lab report (80%).

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