6/7/2017 Simple Power Flow Example - Open Electrical

Simple Power Flow Example

From Open Electrical

Consider the simple model shown in Figure 1, where a large stiff network supplies a constant power load S
through an impedance Zs :

Figure 1. Simple power flow model (note that all quantities are in per-unit)

Suppose the load power S is known and we want to calculate the load bus voltage Vr . Unfortunately, this cannot
be computed in a straightforward manner because the load is of constant power and thus the load current and
impedance are voltage dependent, i.e. the load draws more current as voltage decreases. As a result, the load bus
voltage is non-linearly related to the load itself.

Derivation of the Load Bus Voltage

Note that in this derivation, all quantities are in per-unit. Recall that the load complex power can be calculated
from the voltage and current phasors as follows:

S = Vr I

1 Vr 0
= Vr 0( )
Zs

Suppose that we represent both the load power S and impedance Zs in polar coordinates, i.e.

S = S
Zs = Z

Then the power equation can be re-written as:

1 Vr 0
S = Vr 0( )
Z

Conjugating the terms in brackets and simplifying, we get:

2
S Z () = Vr () Vr

2
S Z ( + ) + Vr = Vr ()

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Applying Euler's law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euler%27s_formula), we get:

2
S Z [cos( + ) + j sin( )] + Vr = Vr [cos() + j sin()]

Separating the real and imaginary terms of the above equation:

2
S Z cos( + ) + Vr = Vr cos()

S Z sin( + ) = Vr sin()

Squaring both equations and summing them together, we get:

2 2 2 2 2
2 2 2
[S Z cos( + ) + Vr ] + (S Z ) sin ( + ) = Vr cos () + Vr sin ()

Simplifying and re-arranging the equation above, we can get the following homogenous equation:
4 2 2
Vr + [2S Z cos( + ) 1] Vr + (S Z ) = 0

This equation can be solved for the load bus voltage Vr using the quadratic formula (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Quadratic_equation#Quadratic_factorization):


2
b b 4c
Vr = ... Equ. (1)
2

Where b = 2S Z cos( + ) 1

2
and c = (S Z )

Worked Example
Suppose that the source bus has a nominal voltage of 33kV and a short circuit level of 800MVA at X/R ratio of 10.
What is the voltage at the load bus if it is supplying a constant 50MW load at 0.8pf (lagging)?

The source impedance is:

2 2
V 33kV
||Zs || = = = 1.361
SSC 800M V A

Converted to per-unit values (on a 100MVA base):

||Zs || 1.361
||Zs,pu || = = = 0.281pu
Zbase 4.84

For an X/R ratio of 10, the source impedance is therefore:

Zs,pu = 0.02799 + j0.2799pu = 0.2811.471 (angle in radians)

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The 50MW load converted to per unit is (by convention, a load with lagging power factor has a negative reactive
power):

S pu = 0.5 j0.375pu = 0.625 0.6435 (angle in radians)

Plugging the parameters S = 0.625 ,Z = 0.281 , = 0.6435 and = 1.471 into Equation (1), we
get the load bus voltage:

Vr = 0.8480pu

Intuition for General Power Flow Solutions

We saw in this simple example that the power flow problem for constant power loads is non-linear (i.e. quadratic)
and cannot be solved with linear techniques. This intuition can be extended to more general power flow problems.
While a closed form solution was found for this simple case, the general power flow problem is typically solved
using iterative numerical methods, for example a Newton-Raphson algorithm.

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Categories: Fundamentals Modelling/Analysis

This page was last modified on 15 February 2017, at 08:37.

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