ECE 530 – Analysis Techniques for

Large-Scale Electrical Systems

Lecture 5: Power Flow Examples,

Power System Operation

Prof. Tom Overbye

Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
overbye@illinois.edu

1
 Announcements
• No class on Sept 24 because of NAPS; HW1 due 9/12
• Some of the material from this lecture is in T.J.
Overbye, “Power System Simulation: Understanding
Small and Large-System Operation,” IEEE Power and
Energy Magazine, 2004; also in M. Crow, G. Gross,
P.W. Sauer, “Power System Basics for Business
Professionals in Our Industry,” IEEE Power and Energy
Magazine, 2003
• Additional information about the power system design
problem is in T.J. Overbye, “Fostering Intuitive Minds
for Power System Design,” IEEE Power and Energy
Magazine, 2003 2
 Two Bus Newton-Raphson
Example
For the two bus power system shown below, use the
Newton-Raphson power flow to determine the
voltage magnitude and angle at bus two. Assume
that bus one is the slack and SBase = 100 MVA.
Line Z = 0.1j

One 1.000 pu Two 1.000 pu

0 MW 200 MW
0 MVR 100 MVR

 2    j10 j10 
x    Ybus   
 V2   j10  j10 
3
 Two Bus Example, cont’d
General power balance equations
n
Pi   Vi Vk (Gik cosik  Bik sin ik )  PGi  PDi
k 1
n
Qi   Vi Vk (Gik sin ik  Bik cosik )  QGi  QDi
k 1
Bus two power balance equations
V2 V1 (10sin  2 )  2.0  0
2
V2 V1 (10cos 2 )  V2 (10)  1.0  0

4
 Two Bus Example, cont’d
P2 (x)  V2 (10sin  2 )  2.0  0
2
Q2 (x)  V2 (10cos 2 )  V2 (10)  1.0  0
Now calculate the power flow Jacobian
 P2 (x) P2 (x) 
  V 2 
2
J ( x)   
 Q 2 (x) Q 2 (x) 
   V 2 
 2

10 V2 cos 2 10sin  2 

 
10 V2 sin  2 10cos 2  20 V2 
5
 Two Bus Example, First Iteration
(0) 0 
Set v  0, guess x  
1 
Calculate

(0)
 V2 (10sin  2 )  2.0   2.0 
f(x )   2   1.0 
 V2 (10cos 2 )  V2 (10)  1.0   
(0) 10 V2 cos 2 10sin  2  10 0 
J (x )      0 10 
10 V2 sin  2 10cos 2  20 V2   
1
(1) 0  10 0   2.0   0.2 
Solve x    1.0    
1
   0 10     0.9 
6
 Two Bus Example, Next Iterations
(1)  0.9(10sin( 0.2))  2.0  0.212 
f(x )   2  
 0.9( 10cos( 0.2))  0.9  10  1.0   0.279 
(1)  8.82 1.986 
J (x )   
 1.788 8.199 
1
(2)  0.2   8.82 1.986 0.212   0.233
x         
 0.9   1.788 8.199   0.279   0.8586 
(2)  0.0145 (3)  0.236 
f(x )    x   
0.0190  0.8554 
(3) 0.0000906 
f(x )    Done! V2  0.8554  13.52
 0.0001175
7
 Two Bus Solved Values
Once the voltage angle and magnitude at bus 2 are
known we can calculate all the other system values,
such as the line flows and the generator reactive
power output
200.0 MW -200.0 MW
168.3 MVR Line Z = 0.1j -100.0 MVR

One 1.000 pu T wo 0.855 pu -13.522 Deg

200.0 MW 2 00 MW
168.3 MVR 1 00 MVR

PowerWorld Case Name: Bus2_Intro

Note, most PowerWorld cases are available on
course website
8
 Two Bus Case Low Voltage Solution

This case actually has two solutions! The second

"low voltage" is found by using a low initial guess.
(0)  0 
Set v  0, guess x  
 0.25 
Calculate

(0)
 V2 (10sin  2 )  2.0   2 
f(x )   2    0.875
 V2 (10 cos 2 )  V2 (10)  1.0   
(0) 10 V2 cos 2 10sin  2   2.5 0 
J (x )      0 5
10 V2 sin  2 10 cos  2  20 V2   
9
 Low Voltage Solution, cont'd
1
 0   2.5 0   2 
(1)  0.8 
Solve x          
 0.25   0  5   0.875   0.075 
(2) 1.462  (2)  1.42  (3)  0.921
f (x )    x   x  
 0.534   0.2336   0.220 
Low voltage solution
200.0 MW -200.0 MW
831.7 MVR Line Z = 0.1j -100.0 MVR

One 1.000 pu Two 0.261 pu -49.914 Deg

200.0 MW 200 MW
831.7 MV R 100 MV R

10
 Practical Power Flow Software Note
• Most commercial software packages have built in
defaults to prevent convergence to low voltage
solutions.
– One approach is to automatically change the load model from
constant power to constant current or constant impedance
when the load bus voltage gets too low
– In PowerWorld these defaults can be modified on the Tools,
Simulator Options, Advanced Options page; note you also
need to disable the “Initialize from Flat Start Values” option
– The PowerWorld case Bus2_Intro_Low is set solved to the
low voltage solution
– Initial bus voltages can be set using the Bus Information
Dialog
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 Two Bus Region of Convergence
Slide shows the region of convergence for different initial
guesses of bus 2 angle (x-axis) and magnitude (y-axis)
Red region
converges
to the high
voltage
solution,
while the
yellow region
converges
to the low
voltage
solution
12
 Power Flow Fractal Region of
Convergence
• Earliest paper showing fractal power flow regions of
convergence is by C.L DeMarco and T.J. Overbye,
“Low Voltage Power Flow Solutions and Their Role in
Exit Time Bases Security Measures for Voltage
Collapse,” Proc. 27th IEEE CDC, December 1988
• A more widely known paper is J.S. Thorp, S.A. Naqavi,
“Load-Flow Fractals Draw Clues to Erratic Behavior,”
IEEE Computer Applications in Power, January 1997

13
 An Unexpected Low Voltage Solution
The 8/14/03
MISO day
ahead
model had
65
energized
115,138,
or 230 kV
buses
with
voltages
below
0.90 pu

The lowest 138 kV voltage was 0.836 pu; lowest 34.5 kV was 0.621 pu;
case contained 42,766 buses; case had been used daily all summer. This
was a low voltage solution!
14
 PV Buses

• Since the voltage magnitude at PV buses is

fixed there is no need to explicitly include
these voltages in x or write the reactive
power balance equations
–the reactive power output of the generator varies
to maintain the fixed terminal voltage (within
limits)
–optionally these variations/equations can be
included by just writing the explicit voltage
constraint for the generator bus

|Vi | – Vi setpoint = 0 15
 Three Bus PV Case Example
For this three bus case we have
 2   P2 (x)  PG 2  PD 2 

x  3  f (x)   P3 (x)  PG 3  PD 3   0
   
 V2   Q2 (x)  QD 2 
Line Z = 0.1j

0.941 pu
One 1.000 pu Two -7.469 Deg

170.0 MW 200 MW
68.2 MVR 100 MVR
Line Z = 0.1j Line Z = 0.1j

Three 1.000 pu

30 MW
63 MVR

16
 Modeling Voltage Dependent Load
So far we've assumed that the load is independent of
the bus voltage (i.e., constant power). However, the
power flow can be easily extended to include voltage
depedence with both the real and reactive load. This
is done by making PDi and Q Di a function of Vi :
n
 Vi Vk (Gik cosik  Bik sin ik )  PGi  PDi ( Vi )  0
k 1
n
 Vi Vk (Gik sin ik  Bik cosik )  QGi  QDi ( Vi )  0
k 1

17
 Voltage Dependent Load Example
In previous two bus example now assume the load is
constant impedance, so
2
P2 (x)  V2 (10sin  2 )  2.0 V2  0
2 2
Q2 (x)  V2 (10cos 2 )  V2 (10)  1.0 V2  0
Now calculate the power flow Jacobian
10 V2 cos 2 10sin  2  4.0 V2 
J ( x)  
10 V2 sin  2 10cos 2  20 V2  2.0 V2 

18
 Voltage Dependent Load, cont'd
(0) 0
Again set v  0, guess x  
1 
Calculate
 2 
(0) V2 (10sin  2 )  2.0 V2  2.0 
f(x )      
 V2 (10cos 2 )  V2 2 (10)  1.0 V2 2  1.0 

(0) 10 4 
J (x )   
 0 12 
1
(1) 0  10 4   2.0   0.1667 
Solve x    1.0    
1
   0 12     0.9167 
19
 Voltage Dependent Load, cont'd
With constant impedance load the MW/Mvar load at
bus 2 varies with the square of the bus 2 voltage
magnitude. This if the voltage level is less than 1.0,
the load is lower than 200/100 MW/Mvar
160.0 MW -160.0 MW
120.0 MVR Line Z = 0.1j -80.0 MVR

0.894 pu
One 1.000 pu Two -10.304 Deg

160.0 MW 160 MW
120.0 MV R 80 MV R

PowerWorld Case Name: Bus2_Intro_Z

20
 Generator Reactive Power Limits

• The reactive power output of generators

varies to maintain the terminal voltage; on a
real generator this is done by the exciter
• To maintain higher voltages requires more
reactive power
• Generators have reactive power limits,
which are dependent upon the generator's
MW output
• These limits must be considered during the
power flow solution.
21
 Generator Reactive Limits, cont'd

• During power flow once a solution is obtained

check to make generator reactive power output
is within its limits
• If the reactive power is outside of the limits, fix
Q at the max or min value, and resolve treating
the generator as a PQ bus
–this is know as "type-switching"
–also need to check if a PQ generator can again
regulate
• Rule of thumb: to raise system voltage we need
to supply more vars 22
 The N-R Power Flow: 5-bus Example
T2
800 MVA
1 T1 5 4 345/15 kV 3 520 MVA
Line 3
345
50kV
mi
400 MVA 800 MVA
15 kV 15 kV
400 MVA 345 kV 40 Mvar 80 MW

Line 2

Line 1
345 kV
15/345 kV 100 mi 200 mi

2
280 Mvar 800 MW
Single-line diagram

This five bus example is taken from Chapter 6 of Power

System Analysis and Design by Glover, Sarma, and Overbye,
5th Edition, 2011
23
 The N-R Power Flow: 5-bus Example
V  PG QG PL QL QGmax QGmin
Bus Type per degrees per per per per per per
unit unit unit unit unit unit unit
Table 1. 1 Swing 1.0 0   0 0  
Bus input
data 2 Load   0 0 8.0 2.8  
3 Constant 1.05  5.2  0.8 0.4 4.0 -2.8
voltage
4 Load   0 0 0 0  
5 Load   0 0 0 0  
Maximum
R’ X’ G’ B’ MVA
Bus-to- per unit per unit per unit per unit per unit
Table 2. Bus
Line input data
2-4 0.0090 0.100 0 1.72 12.0
2-5 0.0045 0.050 0 0.88 12.0
4-5 0.00225 0.025 0 0.44 12.0
24
 The N-R Power Flow: 5-bus Example
Maximum
R X Gc Bm Maximum TAP
per per per per MVA Setting
Table 3. Bus-to- unit unit unit unit per unit per unit
Transformer Bus
input data
1-5 0.00150 0.02 0 0 6.0 —
3-4 0.00075 0.01 0 0 10.0 —

Bus Input Data Unknowns

1 V1 = 1.0, 1 = 0 P1, Q1

2 P2 = PG2-PL2 = -8 V2, 2
Table 4. Input data Q2 = QG2-QL2 = -2.8
and unknowns
3 V3 = 1.05 Q3, 3
P3 = PG3-PL3 = 4.4
4 P4 = 0, Q4 = 0 V4, 4
5 P5 = 0, Q5 = 0 V5, 5 25
 Five Bus Case Ybus

PowerWorld Case Name: Bus5_GSO

26
 Ybus Calculation Details
Elements of Ybus connected to bus 2
Y21  Y23  0
1 1
Y24  ' '
  0.89276  j 9.91964 per unit
R24  jX 24 0.009  j 0.1

1 1
Y25  ' '
  1.78552  j19.83932 per unit
R25  jX 25 0.0045  j 0.05

' '
1 1 B24 B25
Y22  ' '
 ' '
j j
R24  jX 24 R25  jX 25 2 2
1.72 0.88
 (0.89276  j 9.91964)  (1.78552  j19.83932)  j j
2 2
 2.67828  j 28.4590  28.5847  84.624 per unit
27
Here are the Initial Bus Mismatches

28
And the Initial Power Flow Jacobian

29
 And the Hand Calculation Details

P2 (0)  P2  P2 ( x)  P2  V2 (0){Y21V1 cos[ 2 (0)   1 (0)   21 ]

 Y22V2 cos[  22 ]  Y23V3 cos[ 2 (0)   3 (0)   23 ]
 Y24V4 cos[ 2 (0)   4 (0)   24 ]
 Y25V5 cos[ 2 (0)   5 (0)   25 ]}
 8.0  1.0{28.5847(1.0) cos(84.624)
 9.95972(1.0) cos( 95.143)
 19.9159(1.0) cos( 95.143)}
 8.0  (2.89 10 4 )  7.99972 per unit

J 124 (0)  V2 (0)Y24V4 (0) sin[ 2 (0)   4 (0)   24 ]

 (1.0)(9.95972)(1.0) sin[ 95.143]
 9.91964 per unit
30
 Five Bus Power System Solved

One Five Four Three

A A

MVA MVA

395 MW A
520 MW
MVA

114 Mvar slack

337 Mvar

1.000 pu 0.974 pu A A
1.019 pu 80 MW
0.000 Deg -4.548 Deg MVA MVA
-2.834 Deg 40 Mvar
1.050 pu
-0.597 Deg

0.834 pu Two
-22.406 Deg

800 MW
280 Mvar

31
 Power System Operations Overview

• Goal is to provide an intuitive feel for power

system operation
• Emphasis will be on the impact of the
transmission system
• Introduce basic power flow concepts through
small system examples

32
 Power System Basics

• All power systems have three major

components: Generation, Load and
Transmission/Distribution.
• Generation: Creates electric power.
• Load: Consumes electric power.
• Transmission/Distribution: Transmits electric
power from generation to load.
–Lines/transformers operating at voltages above
100 kV are usually called the transmission system.
The transmission system is usually networked.
–Lines/transformers operating at voltages below 33
Metro Chicago Electric Network

34
 Small PowerWorld Simulator Case
Load with
green Bus 2
-20 MW
4 MVR
20 MW
-4 MVR Bus 1

arrows 204 MW
1.00 PU

indicating 102 MVR

1.00 PU
Note the
amount
106 MW
0 MVR
power
of MW 150 MW AGC ON
116 MVR AVR ON
-34 MW
10 MVR
-14 MW
4 MVR 100 MW
balance at
flow
34 MW
-10 MVR
14 MW
-4 MVR
each bus
Bus 3 1.00 PU
Home Area
102 MW
51 MVR
150 MW AGC ON

Used 37 MVR AVR ON

to control
output of Direction of arrow is used to indicate
generator direction of real power (MW) flow
PowerWorld Case: B3NewSlow 35
 Basic Power Control
• Opening a circuit breaker causes the power flow to
instantaneously (nearly) change.
• No other way to directly control power flow in a
transmission line.
• By changing generation we can indirectly change this
flow.
• Power flow in transmission line is limited by heating
considerations
• Losses (I^2 R) can heat up the line, causing it to sag.

36
Overloaded Transmission Line

37
 Interconnected Operation

• Power systems are interconnected across

large distances. For example most of North
America east of the Rockies is one system,
with most of Texas and Quebec being major
exceptions
• Individual utilities only
own and operate a small
portion of the system;
this paradigm is now
more complex with
the advent of ISOs 38
 Balancing Authority (BA) Areas

• Transmission lines that join two areas are known

as tie-lines.
• The net power out of an area is the sum of the
flow on its tie-lines.
• The flow out of an area is equal to

total gen - total load - total losses = tie-flow

39
 Area Control Error (ACE)

• The area control error is the difference between

the actual flow out of an area, and the scheduled
flow
–ACE also includes a frequency component that we
will probably consider later in the semester
• Ideally the ACE should always be zero
• Because the load is constantly changing, each
utility (or ISO) must constantly change its
generation to “chase” the ACE
• ACE was originally computed by utilities;
40
increasingly it is computed by larger
 Automatic Generation Control

• Most utilities (ISOs) use automatic generation

control (AGC) to automatically change their
generation to keep their ACE close to zero.
• Usually the control center calculates ACE based
upon tie-line flows; then the AGC module sends
control signals out to the generators every
couple seconds.

41
 Three Bus Case on AGC

-40 MW 40 MW
Bus 2 8 MVR -8 MVR Bus 1
1.00 PU
266 MW
133 MVR
1.00 PU
101 MW
5 MVR
-77 MW -39 MW
150 MW AGC ON
25 MVR 12 MVR 100 MW
166 MVR AVR ON
78 MW 39 MW
-21 MVR -11 MVR
Bus 3 1.00 PU
Home Area
133 MW
Generation 67 MVR
250 MW AGC ON
is automatically 34 MVR AVR ON

changed to match Net tie flow is

change in load close to zero
42