University of Technology, Jamaica

School of Engineering
Electrical Power Systems

1. An Introduction to Load Flow Analysis

Aims
• to give an appreciation of the data required for loadflow studies
• to give an understanding of the typical system studies
• to determine the impact of load on system voltages
• to give experience on the use of a commercial package
• to determine the impact of network changes on power flows

Introduction

In this exercise you will continue to use the ‘ERACS’ power system analysis software package.
This exercise will concentrate on using the loadflow function.

Getting started

Create the system shown in figure 1. Select appropriate Network, Data State and Working
Library names. The relevant system data are shown in the appendix.

1. Having created the system, run the load flow and determine the real and reactive power
dissipated/absorbed by each transmission line.

Set the susceptance values to zero and determine the impact on the reactive and active
power flows

2. Rerun the loadflow for the following loading conditions on the Tredegar busbar and
determine how it affects the busbar voltage magnitude and angle.

P (MW) Q (MVAr) V (kV) (degrees)

75 10
70 10
65 10
60 5
60 20
60 25
60 30

Restore the load value at Tredegar to be 60MW and 10 MVar respectively.

Owing to the addition of industrial customers and certain network changes, the system loading
is adjusted as shown below:

Bus Name Bus #/Type Load

MW MVAr
Hunts Bay 1/Slack 0 0
Old Harbour 2 25 20
Washington 3 50 40
Kings House 4 45 30
Tredegar 5 60 40

Rerun the loadflow to determine the busbar voltages.

The bus voltage at the Tredegar and Kings House buses are below the prescribed levels of 0.95
per unit. Drawing on your knowledge gained earlier, propose and implement a solution to this
problem.

Restore the original line loadings; switch out the line from Old Harbour to Washington at the
Washington busbar, see below. (the line remains energised at Old Harbour)

Hunts Bay Washington

Old Harbour Tredegar

Rerun the loadflow and determine the changes in the line complex power flows/ bus voltages.

At the closed end of the switched line at Old Harbour the complex power is non-zero, why?

Restore the line at Washington. Change the slack generator voltage to 1.03 and rerun the load
flow. How does this change impact bus voltages and power flows within the network?

Set the negative and zero sequence reactances of the lines to zero and rerun the load flow. How
do these changes affect the results?

Contingency Study

Perform a contingency study on the effect of transmission line outages on the power flows. Reset
the slack voltage to 1.06 pu then switch out each transmission line, one at a time. Tabulate
results to show which outages are critical i.e. cause constraint violations – lines overloaded, bus
voltages outside range (± 5%).
Appendix - System Data

Busbar data

Bus Name Bus #/Type Bus Voltage Load Generation

pu MW MVAr MW MVAr
Hunts Bay 1/Slack 1.06 0 0 0 Unknown Unknown
Old Harbour 2 Unknown 20 10 40 30
Washington 3 Unknown 45 15 0 0
Kings House 4 Unknown 40 5 0 0
Tredegar 5 Unknown 60 10 0 0

Line data

From Busbar 1 1 2 2 2 3 4
To Busbar 2 3 3 4 5 4 5
# of parallel lines 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
Highest, Nominal and 150 100 100 100 100 100 100
Lowest unit rating, MVA
Conversion indicator pu on pu on pu on pu on pu on pu on pu on
base base base base base base base
+ve/-ve sequence 0.02 0.08 0.06 0.06 0.04 0.01 0.08
resistance/unit length
+ve/-ve sequence 0.06 0.24 0.18 0.18 0.12 0.03 0.24
reactance/unit length
+ve/-ve sequence shunt 0.06 0.05 0.04 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.05
susceptance/unit length
Zero sequence resistance/unit 0.02 0.08 0.06 0.06 0.04 0.01 0.08
length
Zero sequence reactance/unit 0.06 0.24 0.18 0.18 0.12 0.03 0.24
length
Zero sequence shunt 0.06 0.05 0.04 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.05
susceptance/unit length

Generator data

G1 G2
Connected to Busbar 1 2
Generator Type Slack PQ
Number of Generators in Parallel 1 1
Voltage magnitude, pu 1.06 0
Group Assigned Power Output, MW 0 40
Group Assigned Reactive Output, MVAr 0 30
Unit rating, MVA 180 100
Unit Power rating, MW 150 60
Rated voltage, kV 69 69
Frequency 50 50
+ve sequence resistance pu on rating 0.005 0.005
+ve sequence reactance pu on rating 0.15 0.15
-ve sequence resistance pu on rating 0.005 0.005
-ve sequence reactance pu on rating 0.15 0.15
zero sequence resistance pu on rating 0.005 0.005
zero sequence reactance pu on rating 0.15 0.15