Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Science

Power Systems Practical 4B

(KRL4B21)

Practical 2: 21 August 2020

Learning Outcomes
The purpose of this practical is to understand impact of loads, generators, transmission lines (and it’s
environmental effects) using MATPOWER.

MATPOWER is simply a collection of MATLAB M-files for solving power flow and optimal power flow
(OPF) problems. It is intended as a simulation tool for researchers and educators that is easy to use
and modify. MATPOWER is designed to give the best performance possible while keeping the code
simple to understand and modify. The software can be found and installed at the following link:
http://www.pserc.cornell.edu/matpower/

Reading Material and References

The MATPOWER user manual is the primary guide needed in the execution of this practical. The link
is given as: (http://www.pserc.cornell.edu/matpower/MATPOWER-manual.pdf)
The academic paper “Investigating a ranking of loads in avoiding potential power system outages”
will also be helpful and will serve as a guide in this practical. The link is given as:
(http://pe.org.pl/articles/2012/11a/55.pdf). A case study report is also provided which will be used
for environmental impacts of transmission lines.
You are encouraged to find and identify additional references as you work through the practical.
MATPOWER
System Requirements

To use MATPOWER you will need:

MATLAB® version 7 (R14) or later, available from The MathWorks, Inc., or

GNU Octave version 3.4 or later (https://www.gnu.org/software/octave/download.html)

Installation

Download MATPOWER. You should end up with a file named matpowerXXX.zip, where XXX depends
on the version of MATPOWER.

Unzip the downloaded file. Move the resulting matpowerXXX directory to the location of your
choice. These files should not need to be modified, so it is recommended that they be kept separate
from your own code. Let <MATPOWER> denote the path to this directory.

Add the following directories to your MATLAB/OCTAVE path:

<MATPOWER> — core MATPOWER functions

<MATPOWER>/t — test scripts for MATPOWER

<MATPOWER>/most — core MOST functions

<MATPOWER>/most/t — test scripts for MOST

At the MATLAB/OCTAVE prompt, type 'test_matpower' (without the quotes) to run the test suite
and verify that MATPOWER is properly installed and functioning.

Running MATPOWER

To run a simple Newton power flow on the 9-bus system specified in the file case9.m, with the
default algorithm options, at the MATLAB/OCTAVE prompt, type:

runpf('case9')

To run an OPTIMAL power flow on the same system type:

runopf('case9')

EXERCISES

For the exercises, the academic paper “Investigating a ranking of loads in avoiding potential power

system outages” will serve as a guide and the modified 5-bus PJM example (‘case5’) and the 14 bus
system (‘case14’) in MATPOWER will be used as test systems.
Fig. 1. One line diagram of the modified 5-bus PJM example

Fig. 2. One line diagram of the 14-bus example system

Impact of Loads on Line Outages (PTDF)
1. Determine the PTDF matrix for Case 5 (Bus 4 is the slack bus).
a. mpc=loadcase(‘case5’);
b. mp=runopf(mpc);
c. makePTDF(mp)

2. Determine the two most important loads/ buses in Case 5. Give a ranking of the five buses in
order of importance via PTDF.

Impact of Loads on Generator Outages (LMP’s)

1. Determine the normal LMP for the 14 bus system.
2. Take out the first three generators one at a time and compute the change in LMP.
a. mpc=loadcase(‘case14’);
b. mpc.gen(1,8)=0;
c. runopf(mpc)
3. Take out two generators (Gen 1 and 2, Gen 1 and 3, Gen 2 and 3) and compute the change
in LMP. Comment on the possibility of these scenarios?
4. Take out all three generators and compute the change in LMP. Comment on the possibility of
these scenarios?

Joint Impact of Loads on Generator and Line Outages (PTDF & LMP’s)
1. Calculate PTDF for the 14 bus system.
2. Take out the first three generators one at a time and calculate PTDF again. Is there a change
in the PTDF values? Can you rationalize the results you get?

Transmission Lines and Environmental Impact Case Study

1. Calculate the branch admittance matrix for all 6 lines in Case 5 using equation 3.2, Fig 3 and
Table B-3
2. Line 6 has a maximum limit of 240 MW and has an average burden of 96% of it’s maximum
limit. A new line 7 is proposed for the system similar to line 6 with a length of 5.2 KM, forest
impact area of 7 hectares and the environmental value of one hectare of fully stocked forest is
$ 20000/annum. Furthermore assuming the cost of power is the highest LMP of the system
and the density of the forest impact area is 0.85. Calculate the cost benefit ratio for line 7
spread over 50 years. (Use the case study given as an example).
3. Assume that in addition 1000 entities will be affected by this transmission line (line 7). If each
entity is to be compensated with $ 10 000. Determine the new cost benefit ratio.
4. CIGRE Report: Externalities of Overhead High Voltage Power Lines discusses the
environmental impact of transmission lines in six principal ways: a) Landscape, b)
 Biodiversity, c) Land use, d) Proximity effect, e) Indirect emissions and f) Resource depletion.
Can you describe your opinion of these effects on the case study described above?

Fig. 3. π transmission line model

Post Report
The post-report must include answers to the exercises and discussions. Practical reports are to be
submitted on Ulink before Friday 11th of September 2020 before 23h59. Late submissions attract a
daily 20% penalty.