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MODIFIED ALGORITHM OF LOAD FLOW SIMULATION FOR LOSS

MINIMIZATION IN POWER SYSTEMS
D. Lukman T.R. Blackburn
School of Electrical and Telecommunication Engineering
University of New South Wales, Kensington
Sydney, NSW-2052, Australia
e-mail : d.lukman@student.unsw.edu.au / d_lukman@hotmail.com
Abstract
This paper focuses on the use of load flow to minimize the losses in an electrical power system. A Matlab
load flow analysis program has been developed using a modified Newton Raphson algorithm based on a
Y-bus admittance matrix to determine the voltage level of the system bus. Losses are then calculated
using B-loss coefficient formula and verified with the traditional I
2
R or differential power methods.
Voltage control using either switched capacitor bank or load tap changer of transformer shall be done to
improve the voltage level whilst minimizing losses. A network of 5-bus system is used as the test case.
Modeling of capacitor bank and tap changer are carried out and implemented in the program. Several
case studies with different values of capacitances and tap settings of transformers are conducted to
determine the minimum losses.
1. INTRODUCTION
Load flow deals with the flow of electrical power
from one or more sources to loads consuming energy
through available paths as commonly shown in a one
line diagram. Electric energy flow in a network
divides among branches according to their respective
impedances until a voltage balance is reached in
accordance to Kirchoffs Laws. The flow will shift
anytime the circuit configuration is changed or
modified, generation is shifted or load requirements
change. Information about these changes are
important for industrial plants and electric utility
operators to ensure efficient operation, minimize
losses, maintain reliability of service and coordinate
protective relaying for unexpected and emergency
conditions.
The losses in electrical network distribution as well as
real and reactive power flows for all equipment
connecting the buses can be computed by means of
load flow simulation. The quantification and
minimization of losses is important because it will
determine the economic operation of the power
system[5]. If we know how the overall losses occur,
we can take steps to minimize them. Active power
losses can be determined by various methods. It can
simply be computed as I
2
R. The power loss in a line
can also be calculated by taking the algebraic sum of
the total power flows in either direction and the total
loss would be the sum of all the line losses[3].
Two methods to reduce the losses on the system
network, which will be discussed in this paper
include:
(1) the change of transformer tap settings
(2) addition of different values of capacitor banks to
control reactive power distribution
System changes can then be simulated using a Newton-
Raphson load flow computer program developed. The
results of such changes are described.
The other method used in this work to calculate losses is
using B-losses coefficients, which express the transmission
losses as a function of the outputs of all the
generation/power plants.[2] Hypothetically, B-losses
coefficients can bias the operation of transformer tap
changers and/or capacitive reactive power
adjustment/FACTS devices inside the traditional Newton-
Raphson load flow algorithm. Instead of having certain
target voltages, we allow voltages to vary within a 5%
tolerance of 1 per unit rating in order to obtain minimum
losses whilst improving the voltage level.
2. NEWTON-RAPHSON LOAD FLOW
AND MODIFIED ALGORITHM
A power flow or load flow program computes the voltage
magnitude and angle at each bus in a power system under
balanced three phase steady state conditions. Once they
are calculated, real and reactive power flows for all
equipment interconnecting the buses, as well as equipment
losses are also computed.
There are two ways to represent the bus voltage equations
to solve the Newton-Raphson load flow problem. Most
references use rectangular coordinates of bus voltages.
[2,3,4]. We prefer to use polar coordinates of bus voltage
as used in [1] as it will be implemented in the Matlab
simulation program developed.
Consider first the non-linear equation y = f(x)
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( )
( )
( )
( )
( )
( )1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
]
1

1
]
1

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
]
1

1
]
1

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
]
1

1
]
1

x Q
Q
x P
x P
x Q
x P
x f
Q
Q
P
P
Q
P
y
V
V V
x
N
N
N
N
N
N
.
.
.
.
;
.
.
.
.
;
.
.
.
.
2
2
2
2
2
2

Eq. [2.1]
where V (voltage), P (real power) and Q (reactive
power) terms are given in per unit and (phase
angle) terms are in radians. The swing bus variables

1
and V
1
are omitted from Equation [2.1] because
they are already known. This equation shows that the
real and reactive powers at every bus except the slack
bus can be expressed as a function of voltage
magnitude and phase angles.
The outputs of Newton-Raphson load flow algorithm
which give the voltage levels at each bus, power flow
in the line connecting two buses in either direction
and line losses can be controlled by applying the
modified algorithm to the original Newton-Raphson
algorithm by means of the followings:
1. Changing transformer tap changers
2. Additional of switched capacitor bank
3. Application of B-losses formula
These three methods will be outlined on the following
sections and implemented in the program developed.
3. APPLICATION OF TAP
CHANGERS OF TRANSFORMER
Tap changing can control the reactive var flow so
optimum bus voltages can be determined and reduce
line losses. A method of controlling the voltages in a
network makes the use of transformers, the turns ratio
of which may be changed. A schematic diagram of
an off-load tap changer is shown in Figure 1 (a)
which requires disconnection of the transformer when
the tap setting is to be changed. Many transformers
now have on-load tap changers as can be shown in
Figure 1 (b).

Figure 1. (a) Off-load Tap changing transformer. (b)
On-load tap-changing transformer with S
1
and S
2
transfer switches, T centre-tapped reactor [4]
The presence of a tap changer allows manual or automatic
change of the turn ratio, and hence of the output voltage.
Because of the impedance of the lines, the voltage at the
receiving end is slightly lower than the voltage at the
sending end for most loads. In order to get a constant and
rated voltage at the secondary of a normally step-down
transformer automatically, an on load tap changer with
additional S
1
and S
2
transfer switches and R centre-tapped
reactor is mounted at the primary side of it as shown in
Figure 1 (b).
Assume that an automatic load tap changing transformer
(OLTC) is connected to a particular bus to keep load
voltage constant. It is possible to run the load flow
program employing one tap setting and without mentioning
the magnitude of load voltage. If the voltage magnitude
determined by the load flow program run exceeds the given
limits, a new tap setting is then selected for the next run.
In general, when the automatic tap-changing feature is
employed to represent a manual tap-changing transformer,
the output of the load flow program will specify the tap
setting that gives the required bus voltage. The change of
tap setting or turn ratio will change the system impedance
matrix. Therefore, after each tap ratio adjustment, the Y
bus
admittance matrix has to be adjusted.
Another means of taking into account the LTC transformer
is to represent it by its impedance, or admittance,
connected in series with an ideal autotransformer, as shown
in Figure 2 (a). A model of a load tap changer needs to be
developed. An equivalent circuit, as shown in Figure 2
(b) [12], can be developed in load flow studies. The
presence of the tap changing transformer causes necessary
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modifications to the Newton-Raphson power flow
technique. The elements of the equivalent circuit,
can then be treated in the same manner as line
elements.


(b)
Figure 2. LTC transformer representations:
(a) equivalent circuit; (b) equivalent circuit [12]
The following parameters of the equivalent circuit
(Figure 2 (b)) in terms of admittances and off-
nominal turns ratio T can be derived:[3]
T
y
A
ij
;
ij
y
T
B

,
_

1
1 ;
ij
y
T T
C

,
_

1
1 1
T = per unit turns ratio (i.e tap setting is +1.25% then
T = 1.0125) [10].
B and C can either be an inductor or capacitor. If we
want to increase the voltage of the transformer output,
normally by taking positive tap, B is chosen as
inductor and C is a capacitor and vice versa. The
presence of a tap changing transformer changes the
elements of both diagonal and off-diagonal of bus
admittance matrix where the transformer is connected
between two buses. The Newton Raphson load flow
simulation is then rerun to obtain the required output.
4. APPLICATION OF SWITCHED
CAPACITOR BANKS
Capacitors are used in the transmission/distribution
line to increase line loadability (maximum power
transfer) and to adjust the system voltage.[1,2] Shunt
capacitors are used to deliver reactive power and increase
the voltage magnitudes during heavy load conditions.
Figure 3 shows the effect of adding a shunt capacitor bank
to a power system bus. The system is represented by its
Thevenin Equivalent at the node, where the capacitor will
be applied by closing the switch. With the switch open, the
node voltage V
t
is equal to the Thevenin voltage E
th
.
Figure 3. Effect of adding a shunt capacitor to a power
system bus
From the power flow standpoint, the addition of a shunt
capacitor bank to a load bus corresponds to the addition of
a negative reactive load. The power flow program
computes the increase in bus voltage magnitude along with
the small change in phase angle.
The additional capacitor is modeled with the susceptance
B. Given a required reactive power injection of Q, the
susceptance B can be calculated from Q = V
2
B. V is the
initial voltage of the bus where the shunt capacitor needs to
be installed.
The addition of capacitor bank changes the bus admittance
matrix similar to the change of tap setting of transfomer.
However, it will only affect the element of the diagonal
admittance matrix of the bus where the capacitor is added.
5. B-LOSSES CALCULATION
The B matrix loss formula was originally introduced in the
early 1950s as a practical method for loss and incremental
loss calculations[7]. In this method, the results of power
flow is used to account for power transmission losses in the
power system. It is important in terms of the economic
dispatch problem[11] to express the system losses in terms
of active power generations only. This is commonly
referred to as the loss formula or B-coefficient method.
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The simplest form of loss equation is Georges
formula[2], which is:

k
m
k
n
n mn m L
P B P P
1 1
Eq. [5.1]
where P
L
is the power losses
P
m
, P
n
is the power generation from all
generator sources
The coefficients B
mn
are commonly referred as the
loss coefficients with the units of reciprocal
Watt/MWatt. The B coefficients are not truly constant
but vary with unit loadings. A more general formula
(Krons loss formula) is given by:


+ +
k
m
k
n
n mn m
k
m
m m L L
P B P P B K P
1 1 1
0 0
Eq. [5.2]
A linear term B
m0
P
m
and a constant K
L0
have been
added to the original quadratic equation. This shows
that losses depend on the active power generations P
only. B
mn
is called the loss coefficient and is given by
a general expression:
( )
( )( )

k
k kn km
n m n m
n m
mn
R N N
pf pf V V
B
cos
Eq. [5.3]
where
m
,
n
are phase angles of currents I
m
,I
n
V
m
, V
n
are voltages at bus m and n
N
km
, N
kn
are current distribution factors
pf
m
, pf
n
are power factors
For a simple system consisting of two generating
plants and one load as shown in Figure 4, losses P
L
in
terms of power output of the plants and B-losses
coefficient can be derived as[5]:
P
L
= P
1
2
B
11
+ 2P
1
P
2
B
12
+ P
2
2
B
22
Eq. [5.4]
where
( )
2
1
2
1
11
pf V
R R
B
c a
+

( )( )
2 1 2 1
12
pf pf V V
R
B
c

( )
2
2
2
2
22
pf V
R R
B
c b
+

Figure 4. A simple radial system of two

generators and one load bus
Knowing that the real power losses are a function of
generations and B-losses coefficient, varying the
generations to fulfill the power demand will change the
losses accordingly. If B-losses are reduced, the losses can
be minimized. Since B-losses coefficients are functions of
resistances of every line, voltage magnitudes and power
factors at each generation, phase angle of generator
currents and current distribution factors from each
generation, while resistances are physical properties of
electrical equipment, which tend to be constant, improving
the voltage at certain points will minimize B-losses
coefficients. Voltage control using either variable tap
changing transformers or capacitors as explained before are
necessary to improve the voltage levels and minimize
losses. These can be implemented in the load flow
simulation developed as explained in Section 6.
6. MATLAB SIMULATION AND
SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS
Matlab was chosen as the simulation tool for this research
because of the ease of manipulation of matrix structures
and inputs. It has in-built routines such as inverse function,
abs function, and so on, graphing facilities to plot
convergence of load flow.
A single line diagram of a five bus system shown in Figure
5 [1] was chosen to be tested. This system is selected
because it represents a typical meshed network where a
load bus is supplied from alternative sources. It has typical
line ratings. The diagram has two generators of 400 MVA
and 800 MVA power ratings, two step down transformers
of 400 MVA and 800 MVA ratings, three long distance
transmission lines and one remote load bus. Overall, this
system consists of five buses and five branches. Bus 1 is
assigned as the slack/swing bus. Bus 3 is the voltage
controlled PV bus while Bus 2,4 and 5 are load buses. The
base of apparent power is 400 MVA. V
base
= 15 kV at
buses 1,3 and 345 kV at buses 2,4,5.
Figure 5. One line diagram of 5 bus power system[1]
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Input data for the simulation is shown Table 1.
Table 1. Bus input data, line input data and
transformer input data of Figure 5.[1]
A Newton-Raphson load flow algorithm has been
implemented in Matlab and the five bus power
system was simulated. The load flow program
converges after 5 iterations.
Plot of convergence of Newton-Raphson in terms of
power mismatches errors versus number of iterations
are shown in Figure 6. The error drops rapidly from
iteration 1 to iteration 2 and then reduces at slower
rate and finally reaches zero sluggishly after five
iterations. The tolerable power mismatch error was
assigned to be 5e-5.
Figure 6. Convergence of Newton Raphson
Voltages at bus 1-5 were calculated and the results are
shown in Table 2. Notice that the voltage magnitude at bus
2 of 0.8338 per unit is under-voltage. Voltage level at bus
2 needs to be improved by applying voltage control.
V = magV = angleV =
1.0000 1.0000 0
0.7708 - j0.3178 0.8338 -22.4063
1.0499 - j0.0109 1.0500 -0.5973
1.0181 - j0.0504 1.0193 -2.8340
0.9712 - j0.0773 0.9743 -4.5479
Table 2. Bus Voltage Outputs in pu & degrees
Real power losses were calculated using differential
powers method. Losses turn out to be 0.0871 per unit or
3.81%. This value has been verified by calculating losses
from I
2
R. Calculation using B-loss formula gives losses
equal to 0.0823 pu or error = 5.5%.
6.1 Applying voltage control by changing tap setting of
Transformer between bus 1 and 5
Using Matlab, parameters of the equivalent circuit of the
tap changing transformer between bus 1 to 5 are calculated
to be A = 0.9208 j12.2766, B = 0.0115 j0.1535 and C =
-0.01137 + j0.1516. This shows that B is an inductor and
C is a capacitor.
The tap setting is increased in step of 1.25 % and the load
flow is rerun to obtain an acceptable voltage level within t
5 % of unity which gives the minimum losses. Two ways
of calculating real power losses using traditional I
2
R and
B-loss formula are compared. The minimum losses of
0.0704 pu using I
2
R as shown in Figure 7 occurs using tap
setting = 15% with voltage of bus 2 of 0.941 pu. Minimum
losses of 0.0676 pu using B-losses as shown in Figure 7
occur at tap = 10% with voltage of bus 2 of 0.9098 pu.
These two voltage levels are still not acceptable. Minimum
losses with acceptable voltage magnitude of 0.9553 pu is
obtained with tap = 17.5% where the losses are slightly
different using both methods.
Figure 7. Graph of Real Power Losses based on I
2
R and
B-losses vs Tap Setting of Transformers.
Real Power Losses using B-losses and I
2
R vs Tap Setting
0.06
0.065
0.07
0.075
0.08
0.085
0.09
1.0125 1.025 1.0375 1.05 1.0625 1.075 1.0875 1.1 1.1125 1.125 1.1375 1.15 1.1625 1.175 1.1875 1.2
Tap Setting of Transformer (1.25 - 20 %)
R
e
a
l P
o
w
e
r
L
o
s
s
e
s
(
p
u
)
I2R
B-losses
6/7
The two curves are slightly different. They intersect
at tap = 15% where the losses are equal to 0.0704 pu.
6.2 Applying voltage control by adding shunt
capacitor at bus 2
Now we want to improve the voltage level at bus 2
whilst minimizing the total real power losses. The
capacitor has been modeled with susceptance B. The
first run of load flow program gave a voltage at bus 2
of 0.8338 magnitude. The sensitivity analysis is
carried out by adding 5 steps of 0.2 pu reactive power
injection from 0.2 to 1 pu. Susceptance can then be
calculated from B = Q/V
2
.
Minimum losses of 0.0583 pu calculated from I
2
R as
shown in Figure 8 is attained by adding 0.6 pu or 300
Mvar with acceptable bus 2 voltage of 1.0595 pu.
Using B-loss formula, minimum losses 0.0733 as
shown in Figure 8 is achieved by adding 0.4 pu of
reactive power with acceptable voltage of bus 2 of
0.9791 pu.
Figure 8. Graph of Real Power Losses using I
2
R
and B-losses vs Capacitor Bank Reactive Power
The two curves have similar shapes although the
losses calculated using I
2
R are smaller than the losses
calculated using B-loss coefficients.
It has been shown that the real power losses vary
parabolically with either tap setting of transformer or
capacitor reactive power. Hence, there is a point
where minimum real power losses occur. This is an
optimum point for the operation of an electrical
power system as long as the voltage is within
allowable range.
7. CONCLUSION
A Matlab load flow simulation program has been
developed using a modified Newton-Raphson algorithm to
calculate and control the voltage, determine real and
reactive power flows and compute real power losses.
Voltage control using tap changers can be implemented in
the load flow analysis by using a equivalent circuit.
Optimum tap setting can be determined by load flow
simulation, which gives minimum real power losses and
acceptable voltage level. Optimum voltage control by
means of switched capacitor bank can also improve the
voltage level at a bus to result in minimum power losses.
The shunt capacitor is added at the bus where the bus
voltage is under voltage before load flow simulation is
rerun. Optimum value of capacitance is obtained from
simulation, which gives minimum losses at acceptable
voltage level.
Results of losses using I
2
R are slightly different than the
results calculated using B-losses formula. At this stage it
can be said that the calculation of losses using I
2
R is more
accurate because it has been verified with differential
power method which gives the same results. Although it is
not so accurate, calculation of losses based on B-losses
coefficients is useful because it allows optimization
configuration to achieve minimum losses.
Future research will explore the use of B-losses
coefficients to determine the tap settings of the transformer
or the capacitance of capacitor banks to satisfy the required
voltage level whilst minimizing losses.
8. REFERENCES
1. Glover, J.D. and Sarma, M. 1994, Power System
Analysis and Design, 2
nd
ed., PWS Publishing
Company, Boston
2. Stevenson, W.D. 1975, Elements of Power System
Analysis, 3
rd
ed., McGraw-Hill Kogakusha, Ltd.,
Tokyo.
3. Stagg, G.W. and El-Abiad, A.H. 1968, Computer
Methods in Power System Analysis, McGraw-Hill
Book Company, New York.
4. Weedy, B.M. and Cory, B.J., 1998, Electric Power
Systems, 4
th
ed., John Wiley & Sons, West Sussex.
5. Lukman, D., Blackburn, T.R and Walshe, K, Loss
Minimization in Industrial Power System Operation,
Proceedings of the Australasian Universities Power
Engineering Conference (AUPEC94), Brisbane,
Australia, 24-27 September 2000.
Real Power Losses using B-losses and I
2
Rvs Capacitor Bank
0.05
0.055
0.06
0.065
0.07
0.075
0.08
0.085
0.09
0.095
0.1
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Capacitor Bank Reactive Power (pu)
R
e
a
l P
o
w
e
r
L
o
s
s
e
s
(
p
u
)
B-losses
I2R
7/7
6. Penny, J. and Lindfield, G., 1995, Numerical
methods using MATLAB, Ellis Horwood Limited,
Hertfordshire
7. Wood, A.J. and Wollenberg, B.F., 1996, Power
Generation, Operation and Control, 2
nd
ed., John
Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York.
8. Del Toro, V., 1992, Electric Power Systems,
Prentice Hall, Inc., New Jersey.
9. ANSI/IEEE Standard 399-1980, IEEE
recommended practice for industrial and
commercial power systems analysis, 1980, Power
System Technologies Committee of the IEEE
Industry Applications Society.
10. Parker, A.M., The Modeling of Power System
Components, 1997 Residential School in
Electrical Power Engineering, UNSW, Australia,
26 Jan 14 Feb 1997.
11. Jabr, R., Coonick, A.H and Cory, B.J., A Study of
the Homogeneous Algorithm for Dynamic
Economic Dispatch with Network Constraints
and Transmission Losses, IEEE Transactions on
Power Systems, Vol. 15, No. 2, May 2000, pp
605-611
12. Gonen, T. 1988, Modern Power System Analysis,
John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York
APPENDIX
Power flow solutions by Newton-Raphson are based
on the non-linear power flow solutions. It can be
shown that the power flow equations of y = f(x) can
be written as:
( ) ( )

N
n
kn n k n kn k k k k
V Y V x P P y
1
cos
Eq.[A.1]
( ) ( )

+

N
n
kn n k n kn k k k N k
V Y V x Q Q y
1
sin
Eq.[A.2]
where k = 2, 3, , N
Y
kn
is the element of the bus admittance
matrix between buses k and n
Hence, there are two non-linear simultaneous
equations for each node. The real and reactive
powers depend on the product of the sum of the
voltages connected between two buses and the
admittance between the buses. The bus admittance
matrix can be first formed from the impedances
connected to a bus or between two buses.
Changes in P and Q are related to changes in V and
by Equations [A.1] and [A.2], e.g.
N
N
P P P
P

+ +

2
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
... Eq.[A.3]
Similar equations hold in terms of P and V, and Q in
terms of and V.
Hence, the Newton-Raphson method requires that a set of
linear equations be formed expressing the relationship
between the changes in real and reactive powers and the
components of bus voltages and phase angles. The
Jacobian matrix can be partitioned into four blocks J
1
, J
2
,
J
3
and J
4
.
1
]
1

1
]
1

1
]
1

V J J
J J
Q
P
4 3
2 1
Eq. [A.4]
The partial derivatives in each block can be derived from
Equations [A.1] and [A.2]. The unknown quantities in
Equation [A.4] are the elements of the column matrix of
the changes in the phase angle and voltage of each bus.
Convergence criteria are often based on y(i) or power
mismatches rather than x(i) or phase angle and voltage
magnitude mismatches.
Once the voltage at each bus is computed, line flows can be
calculated. The current at bus k in the line connecting k
and n is given by:
( )
2
'
kn
k kn n k kn
y
V y V V i + Eq. [A.5]
where y
kn
= line admittance, y
kn
= total line charging
admittance and (V
k
y
kn
)/2 = current contribution at bus k
due to line charging. The real and reactive power flow
from k to n is found to be:
( )
2
'
* * *
kn
k k kn n k k kn k kn kn
y
V V y V V V i V jQ P + Eq. [A.6]
The power loss in line k-n is the algebraic sum of the
power flows in either direction.