Static Network Reduction Methods

for
Power System Load Flow Studies
Introduction
One of the important aspects for any country to become in to a well developed country is that
it should have a well organised power system. The overall economic development will also
depend up on the availability of the power.

The increase in the power usage is also due to the rapid industrialization and urbanization. So
the electric power networks are growing in large size and complexity year after year.

Power systems are interconnected via tie lines and transfer electric power from surplus to
deficit areas. Due to this interconnectivity the modern electric power systems are
characterized by their large size and complexity with enormous number of generating units,
transmission lines, transformers and other related compensating devices etc, distributed over
large areas involving several kilometres.

To understand state of the power system on a time to time basis so as to facilitate the
strategies for effective control measures, several kinds of application software packages are
developed and are listed below.

1) State estimator
2) Network configuration
3) Power flow program
4) Optimal power flow program
5) Contingency analysis program
6) Security assessment program
7) Dynamic stability
8) Transient stability
9) Power frequency transients
10) Load shedding program
13) Analysis of voltage stability
14) Load forecasting
In all the above programmes, the entire power system is described by a set of different
equations and non linear algebraic equations depending up on the nature and kind of study.

Theoretically speaking for every kind of disturbance either small or big the entire power
system is needed to be represented via mathematical model, which are needed to be solved
either in frequency domain or in time domain. The solution process involves enormous
computational burden.
In this regard, a continuous search is in progress to simplify the representation of the entire
power system in the form of simpler sub systems connected via suitable strategies.

In this context, it is worthwhile to mention the concept of coherency in a power system for a
small to medium disturbances. It is being observed that most of the generators far away from
the disturbed location swing in unison suggesting that these generators are coherent in nature.
Hence all these machines can be clubbed together and could be represented by a single
equivalent machine there by reducing the number of dynamic equations which greatly
reduces the computational burden.

Similar kind of effort is in process for the network representation also. It is interesting to note
that such an effort is already in practise in classical transient stability studies where the entire
power system network is reduced to generator internal nodes so as to reduce the size of the
network involving several hundreds of buses to few tens of buses associated with only
generators.

On similar lines effort is in progress all over the world to device suitable network equivalents
both static and dynamic to use these equivalents in various application programmes as
mentioned earlier suitable for online purposes.

The effort of such research has resulted in few static network equivalents such as ward
equivalent, extended ward equivalent, radial equivalent independent equivalents.

The static network equivalents have very wide application in power flow models,
contingency analysis and in transient stability studies. In view of its importance in allowing
for simpler representation with reduced dimensionality of the power system, in this thesis a
modest attempt is going to be made to understand the concepts of equivalence suitable for the
analysis of power system problems related to steady operating point.

Network reduction techniques

In general, network reduction techniques are divided into static and dynamic based on the
representation of the model and its intended use. For static reduction, the equivalent models a
snapshot of the system and is intended for static analysis only: power flow calculations,
system operation studies and planning analysis. In the dynamic reduction, the reduced model
is intended for the analysis of system dynamic effects including large scale power system
transient stability analysis with large disturbances, large scale power system off-line dynamic
stability analysis with small disturbance, and large scale power system on-line security
assessment. In this study, only the static reduction is of interest and, therefore, the term
“network reduction” refers only to the power system static reduction.

There currently exist four types of network reduction methods: the Ward equivalent and its
variations, the REI equivalent and its variations, the OPF-based equivalent, and the market-
based equivalent. Among all the network reduction methods, the Ward equivalent is probably
the most widely used one. This technique was proposed by Ward.
The Ward reduction partitions a system into internal subsystem (study system), external
subsystems and boundary buses. The internal subsystem will be kept intact during the
reduction while the external subsystem will be removed by Gaussian elimination.

Properties of Equivalencing
• Equivalent systems usually

– are smaller and less detailed

• solve quicker

• require less storage

• require less up-to-date data

– contain fictitious elements

• can make modelling/updating more difficult

– Only approximate the behaviour of the original

Study vs External Systems

• Typically broken up into two systems
– Study system represented in detail

– External system represented by an equivalent

• Two systems are joined at boundary buses

• Boundary buses are the buses in the study system that connect to the external system

The “Optimal” Equivalent

• It depends upon the application

• Requires engineering judgment between

– size

– accuracy

– complexity

The performances of the reduced networks are evaluated in terms of their ability to follow the
bus voltages of the original network, with changes in operating conditions. The IEEE 6-bus,
14- bus, 25-bus and 30-bus systems are taken as the test systems.

Work Done (till date)

In order to compare the performance of some of the commonly used network reduction
methods with original network performance analysis (load flow analysis) has to be done.

In this context, conventional power flow model like Newton-Raphson load flow model is
chosen.

Newton-Raphson Method

Notations:
∆Pk+j∆Qk = Complex power mismatch at bus k, where
∆Pk = Pksp – Vk Σ Vm (Gkm cosθkm+Bkm sinθkm)
mєk

∆Qk = Qk – Vk
sp
Σ Vm (Gkm cosθkm+Bkm sinθkm)
mєk
sp sp
Pk + Qk = Scheduled complex power at bus k.
θk , Vk = Voltage angle, magnitude at bus k.
θkm = θk - θm
Gkm + Bkm = (k, m) th element of bus admittance matrix [G] + [B]
∆θ, ∆V = Voltage angle, magnitude corrections.
m є k signifies that bus m is connected to bus k, including the case m=k
 The bus power equations for real and reactive power are given below:
Pk = Vk Σ Vm (Gkm cosθkm+Bkm sinθkm)
mεk

Qk = Vk Σ Vm (Gkm cosθkm+Bkm sinθkm)

mεk

The above power equations in polar form are linearized around an operating
point and the linearized equations thus resulted are expressed below by equation 3.29

 P   H N    
Q   J L  V / V 
  

Mismatches Jacobian corrections

The elements of the sub matrices are the well known partial derivatives of the
power equations with respect to bus voltage angles and bus voltage magnitudes. Thus,
the elements of jacobian matrix changes in every iteration. So, in the iterative process
of power flow solution the elements of jacobian and repeat solutions are needed for
power to converge. The iteration ceases out when power mismatch is less than a
specified tolerance
The incremental changes in bus voltage angles and voltage magnitudes are
obtained as shown below.
1
    H N   P 
V / V    J L  Q  ................. (3.30)
  
The above N-R model is tested on the test systems of 6-bus system, IEEE-14,
25 and 30 bus systems.

Discussion on Results
The power flow solutions are obtained for 6 bus, IEEE 14, IEEE 25 and IEEE 30 bus test
systems for unreduced systems.

(Format to show results you have to do this) and you should know the data difference for
different IEEE bus systems
Newton-Raphson load flow solution for the IEEE XXX-bus system using the MATLAB
program:
Maximum Power Mismatch = XXXX
No. of Iterations = XXX
Load Generation
No. Mag. Degree MW Mvar MW Mvar Mvar
Bus No. Voltage(P.U.) Angle(R) Load Generation
Pd Qd Pg Qg

Total loss =