16th NATIONAL POWER SYSTEMS CONFERENCE, 15th-17th DECEMBER, 2010
Distributed Load Flow using Partitioning and
Equivalencing of Power Networks
G A Ezhilarasi
Department of Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Chennai - 600036, INDIA
Email: angel.ezhil@gmail.com
Abstract—This paper presents a distributed load flow that can
be implemented in decentralized control centres. This becomes
essential for power system having geographically separated areas.
The system is partitioned into two areas balancing the number
of nodes in each area. This is done to balance the computational
load on the system in each control center. The Boundary buses
are treated as load buses and the generator buses in the internal
and the external system respectively. Simulation is done on IEEE
Standard 14 Bus and 30 Bus Systems simulation and comparison
is done between the base case and the reduced load flow results.
Index Terms—Partitioning, Network Equivalent, Distributed
Computing.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Power system is a large interconnected complex network
involving computation intensive applications and highly in-
tensive, nonlinear dynamic entities that spread across vast
area. Under normal as well as congested condition, centralized
control requires powerful computing facilities and multiple
high speed communication links at the control centers. During
certain circumstances, a failure in remote part of the system
might spread instantaneously if the control action is delayed.
This lack of response may cripple the entire power system
including the centralized control center itself. An effective way
to monitor and control complex power system is to intervene
locally at places where there is disturbance and control the
problem from propagating through the network. Hence dis-
tributed computing can greatly enhance the reliability and can
be used effectively in power system applications.
To simulate and implement distributed computing in power
system the large interconnected network must be torn into sub
networks in an optimal way. The partitioning should balance
between the size of the sub networks and the interconnecting
tie lines in order to reduce the overall parallel execution time.
Over the past decades a number of algorithms have been pro-
posed in literature for optimal network tearing. The techniques
include dynamic programming, and the heuristic clustering
approaches. Some of the optimization techniques such as
simulated annealing, genetic algorithm [1] and tabu search
[2] have also been used for network tearing[3]. For these
optimization problems the cost function is formed such that
it reflects the features of parallel and distributed processing.
However these methods are computation intensive and involve
Department of Electrical Engineering, Univ. College of Engg., Osmania University, Hyderabad, A.P, INDIA.
335
K S Swarup
Department of Electrical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Madras
Chennai - 600036, INDIA
Email: swarup@ee.iitm.ac.in
procedures based on natural selection crossover and mutation.
It also requires a large population size and occupies more
memory. As the power system is geographically distributed
in nature, the optimal partitions of IEEE Standard systems is
taken manually in this paper.[4]
The following sections are organized as follows. Section 2
gives an overview of distributed computing of load flow in
power system. The two important tasks in distributed com-
puting are network partitioning and representing the external
system by its equivalent. These two tasks are briefed in the
next two sections. Section 5 discusses the implementation of
the proposed methodology on IEEE 14 bus and IEEE 30 Bus
Systems.
II. D ISTRIBUTED L OAD F LOW
Distributed approach can greatly enhance the reliability
and improve the flexibility and efficiency of power system
monitoring and control.The Distributed Processing is a flexible
means for the power system operators to manage the system
efficiently within a limited period [5].
Control
Center−1
Distributed
Load
Flow
Control Control
Center−1 Center−1
Fig. 1. Schematic Distributed Power System
The two main tasks in distributed computing are network
partitioning and equivalencing the external network. The first
step in implementing this is to divide the entire power system
into a number of control areas, and then set up a lower level
control center for each area. It has many advantages over the
 16th NATIONAL POWER SYSTEMS CONFERENCE, 15th-17th DECEMBER, 2010 336

centralized control like higher efficiency, economy, enhanced
reliability and flexibility, even though it increases the capital
investment for communication system [1]. As shown in Figure
1, each sub area communicates with the centralized control
center and also among themselves. In this work, the base case
load flow is used after partitioning the system and the data
can be obtained offline from the centralized control center
[6]. The various steps involved in this process is explained
by means of a flowchart in Fig 2. The interconnected power
system network is taken for study. The Base case load flow
is done on the entire system under normal conditions. Then
optimal partitioning of the network is done in such a way that
the resulting sub network is a connected graph. The resulting
partitions are treated as geographically distributed sub areas.
The system under study is taken as the internal system and
the other one is the external system. The external system is
represented by the power flow in the tie lies obtained from the
base case power flow. Then the distributed load flow is done
simultaneously in the internal and the external system. The
validity of this approach is justified from the error analysis on
the voltage magnitude and angle at the buses and the power
flow in the lines of the sub networks.
Start
Read Entire
System Data
Perform Base Case
Load Flow
Network Partition
Represent
External Equivalent
Internal External
System System
Load Flow Load Flow
Perform
Error Analysis
Stop
Fig. 2. Flowchart for Distributed Load Flow
Load Flow Study is an important application in power
system, that plays a vital role in planning and designing
the power system and its expansion. It plays a vital role
in determining the operating state of the existing system.
The principal information obtained from this study is the
magnitude and phase angle of the voltage at each bus and the
real and reactive power flow in the lines. The net loss in the
system is also be computed from the system load flow. The
conventional methods used to solve the load flow problem
involve intensive computations and are time consuming [7].
A typical power flow program can handle large amount of
data if the computing facilities are sufficiently large. In a
restructured environment, the Independent System Operator
(ISO) executes load flow program to study the reliability of
the system and also for transmission congestion management.
The load flow results helps the ISO to examine the feasibility
of the schedules in the market operations. Since electric power
system is naturally distributed over a vast geographical area,
distributed monitoring and control becomes essential. Dis-
tributed management consists of several clusters of computers
at the sub area control centers separated miles apart [8]. This
has many advantages over the centralized control of the entire
system like reliability, flexibility and economy. The distributed
system can provide many functions that are difficult to realize
in a centralized system like online external equivalent of the
other sub areas [9]
III. N ETWORK PARTITIONING
For a integrated hierarchical architecture, it is impractical
to do any power system calculation for such a huge inter-
connected system through centralized processing. It is ideal
that each area does its own calculations under some presumed
base case conditions. In decentralised processing architecture,
the entire system is partitioned in to sub areas each being
controlled by their own control centers [10]. All the sub areas
are linked with each other by a central control centers. Apart
from its own areas control, the central control centre acts a
negotiator between the sub area control centres. In real time
each area is geographically separated from the other areas. It
needs the data at the boundary buses that are connected to the
adjacent areas and governed by different control centers. In
this work a simple partition scheme is employed to establish
the real time geographical sub areas [11]. The singularity
check is done on the partitions created. Buses in the Internal
External layer are identified along with the Internal Boundary
and External Boundary. The Details of the Internal External
and Boundary Buses are given in Table I.
TABLE I
PARTITION D ETAILS OF IEEE T EST C ASES
Test Internal Internal External External
Case System Boundary Boundary System
1, 2, 3, 5, 4, 6, 7 9, 11, 12, 10, 14
14 Bus 8 13
1, 2, 3, 5, 4, 6, 8, 12, 17, 13, 14,
30 Bus 7, 9, 11 10 20, 21, 15, 16,
22, 28 18, 19,
23, 24,
25, 26,
27, 29,
30.
The schematic of the partitions made for IEEE 14 Bus
system are shown in the Figure 3. This partition has the

Department of Electrical Engineering, Univ. College of Engg., Osmania University, Hyderabad, A.P, INDIA.
 16th NATIONAL POWER SYSTEMS CONFERENCE, 15th-17th DECEMBER, 2010 337

minimum number of tie lines and the number of nodes in and the external system. For detailed analysis of the Internal
the sub network is also well balanced. The schematic of the System the external system is represent by its equivalent to
reduce the computational burden. The conventional techniques
12 used for network equivalents are the WARD Equivalents [12],
Radial Equivalent Independent(REI) [13] Equivalents and Lin-
6 earisation. The impediments of these techniques lies in their
13
5
inability to model any change in the external network [14]. The
networks are valid for incremental changes within the internal
1 7 networks only. In this work a simple method of representing
the external system by means of the power injections at those
11
buses is done. The overview of this approach is shown in Fig.
4
5 and Fig. 6.
2 8

14
3 10

External Boundary
9

Internal Boundary
Fig. 3. Optimal Partition of IEEE 14 Bus System into 2 Clusters Internal External
System System
partitions made for IEEE 30 Bus system are shown in the
Figure 4. In this case if the network is divided into equal
Tie
partitions then the connectivity of the network is lost leading Lines
to isolated node. Hence load balancing of the sub networks is
not considered in this case.
29 Fig. 5. Schematic of Interconnected Power System
27 28

25
30 26

23 24

15
18 19 Internal Load External
17 20
System Generation System

21
14 16
22
13
10
12

11 9
Fig. 6. Schematic of Partitioned Power System

3 As depicted above the boundary buses at the internal system

4 8
6
and the external system are separated. The boundary buses
1
in the internal system are treated a load buses with the load
7 being the power flow in the tie lines from that bus. Similarly
2
the boundary buses at the external system are assumed to be
5 generator buses with the power flow in the tie lines as the
generation at that bus. The slack bus [15] is taken to be the
Fig. 4. Optimal Partition of IEEE 30 Bus System into 2 Clusters
generator bus with maximum generation and voltage and angle
being fixed using the base case power flow results.
IV. N ETWORK E QUIVALENTS V. C ASE S TUDY
Network Equivalencing methods aims to identify the inter- The simulations were done on IEEE 14 bus and IEEE 30
nal area of the system to be fully preserved and the external bus system. The partitions are created by sequential testing
area that is to reduced and represented by its equivalent. The fo all possible combinations and singularity checks. The
boundary buses at the internal and the external system are system is separated into Internal and External System and
also identified, which yields the tie lines between the internal the Boundary Buses are identified. The partitions created are

Department of Electrical Engineering, Univ. College of Engg., Osmania University, Hyderabad, A.P, INDIA.
 16th NATIONAL POWER SYSTEMS CONFERENCE, 15th-17th DECEMBER, 2010 338

1.1 0
Actual Actual
−2
Distributed Distributed
1.08 −4

−6

Phase Angle δ
1.06
| V | pu

−8

−10
1.04
−12

1.02 −14

−16

1 −18
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Bus Number Bus Number

(a) Voltage Magnitude (b) Phase Angle

−3
x 10
0.5 0.02

0 0

−0.02
−0.5
Error in | V | pu

−0.04
Error in δ pu

−1
−0.06
−1.5
−0.08
−2
−0.1

−2.5 −0.12

−3 −0.14
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Bus Number Bus Number

(c) Error in Voltage Magnitude (d) Error in Phase Angle

Fig. 7. Comparison of IEEE 14 Bus System Results

TABLE II
already shown in section 3. Conventional load flow is done C OMPARISON OF V OLTAGE M AGNITUDE AND V OLTAGE A NGLE FOR IEEE
using fast decoupled load flow method and the same is applied 14 B US S YSTEM
on the partitioned system. The results are justified in terms of
the error in the voltage magnitude and the angle in the system. Bus Voltage Magnitude |V | (p.u) Phase Angle δ (deg)
No Actual Internal External Actual Internal External
It is found that for the system under study the error in voltage
1 1.0600 1.0600 - 0 0 -
is found to be minimum. The power flow in the lines also are
2 1.0450 1.0450 - -4.9847 -4.9691 -
compared for the distributed load flow.
3 1.0100 1.0100 - -12.7324 -12.6936 -
4 1.0168 1.0194 - -10.3026 -10.3065 -
5 1.0185 1.0201 - -8.7633 -8.7602 -
6 1.0700 1.0700 - -14.2383 -14.2267 -
Table II shows the simulation results of IEEE 14 Bus
7 1.0601 1.0614 - -13.3448 -13.3375 -
system. The error between the actual voltage maginitudes
8 1.0900 1.0900 - -13.3448 -13.3375 -
and the distributed system voltage magnitudes is found to be 9 1.0534 - 1.0534 -14.9237 - -14.9237
minimum. The same has been tabulated for the phase angles 10 1.0489 - 1.0489 -15.0877 - -15.0847
also. This is visualized best in the Fig 7. Comparison of 11 1.0559 - 1.0559 -14.7929 - -14.7830
voltage magnitude and phase angle of IEEE 30 Bus system is 12 1.0550 - 1.0550 -15.0926 - -14.9621
shown in Table III. The real and reactive power flows of the 13 1.0500 - 1.0500 -15.1688 - -15.0539
interconnected system is compared with that of the partitioned 14 1.0339 - 1.0339 -16.0334 - -15.9835
internal and external system. The simulation results of the test
cases are found to match with minimum error as shown in
Table IV.

Department of Electrical Engineering, Univ. College of Engg., Osmania University, Hyderabad, A.P, INDIA.
16th NATIONAL POWER SYSTEMS CONFERENCE, 15th-17th DECEMBER, 2010 339

TABLE IV
C OMPARISON OF R EAL AND R EACTIVE P OWER F LOWS OF IEEE T EST C ASES

Test Sub Line Real Power Flow (MW) Reactive Power Flow (MVAR)
Case Area No Actual Distributed Error Actual Distributed Error
1 156.9481 156.4745 0.4736 -18.9364 -18.8257 -0.1107
2 73.2839 73.0755 0.2084 4.7514 4.7719 -0.0205
3 56.1241 55.9877 0.1364 -0.1910 -1.6614 1.4704
4 75.4646 75.3773 0.0873 5.7274 4.9910 0.7364
IEEE 14 Bus System

5 41.5392 41.4367 0.1025 2.7448 1.8251 0.9198

Internal
6 -23.2419 -23.4373 0.1954 4.7678 3.2913 1.4765
7 -60.9535 -60.7773 -0.1762 15.7813 18.1352 -2.3538
16 27.3560 27.3561 -0.0001 -20.3621 -19.7488 -0.6133
18 41.2573 41.2574 -0.0001 -18.8539 -18.2403 -0.6136
19 -0.0000 0.0000 -0.0000 -17.9711 -17.2532 -0.7179
11 5.1388 5.0792 0.0596 3.7088 3.7333 -0.0245
12 9.3444 9.0558 0.2886 3.2825 3.4144 -0.1319
External 13 -3.8727 -3.9322 0.0595 -2.1218 -2.0970 -0.0248
14 1.6409 1.7090 -0.0681 0.8178 0.7428 0.0750
15 5.7254 6.0134 -0.2880 2.0735 1.9398 0.1337
1 90.6051 90.8950 -0.2899 0.0249 -0.0567 0.0816
2 47.9485 48.0115 -0.0631 -0.8178 0.1155 -0.9334
3 29.1393 29.2481 -0.1088 -6.2992 -5.1305 -1.1688
4 44.6058 44.6658 -0.0600 -3.6685 -2.7513 -0.9172
5 58.0722 58.1483 -0.0762 2.7810 2.7715 0.0095
6 37.8237 37.9195 -0.0958 -5.9643 -5.5222 -0.4420
7 39.1464 38.9779 0.1685 0.6047 -2.4130 3.0177
Internal
8 -13.0638 -12.9915 -0.0723 2.9639 3.3562 -0.3923
9 36.2983 36.2241 0.0742 7.3140 6.9172 0.3968
10 -0.7753 -0.7751 -0.0001 0.5347 -1.4410 1.9757
35 -17.9300 -17.9300 -0.0000 -22.9920 -23.2146 0.2226
36 32.5149 32.5166 -0.0017 4.0216 4.0840 -0.0624
38 14.8109 14.8126 -0.0017 -10.4738 -10.6358 0.1620
39 11.8148 11.8132 0.0016 -2.9580 -3.0066 0.0486
IEEE 30 Bus System

11 7.6957 7.6387 0.0570 2.0309 2.0682 -0.0373

12 17.5349 17.2876 0.2474 5.2617 5.3671 -0.1055
13 6.7622 6.7413 0.0209 1.9212 1.9301 -0.0090
14 1.4246 1.3679 0.0567 0.2831 0.3220 -0.0390
15 3.2196 3.1989 0.0207 0.0316 0.0410 -0.0094
16 5.6906 5.5975 0.0932 1.0477 1.0963 -0.0486
17 2.4567 2.3645 0.0922 0.0787 0.1292 -0.0506
18 -7.0470 -7.1389 0.0920 -3.3288 -3.2777 -0.0511
23 -1.5722 -1.4618 -0.1104 -2.1263 -2.1806 0.0543
24 4.8621 4.6564 0.2057 1.5944 1.6994 -0.1050
External
25 6.1548 6.3179 -0.1630 1.9051 1.8115 0.0936
26 1.6374 1.4332 0.2042 -0.0555 0.0526 -0.1081
27 -0.9561 -0.9985 0.0423 -0.9274 -0.9141 -0.0133
28 -4.5034 -4.5458 0.0424 -3.2988 -3.2857 -0.0131
29 6.1868 6.1868 0.0000 1.6627 1.6627 0.0000
30 7.0880 7.0879 0.0000 1.6553 1.6553 0.0000
31 3.7027 3.7027 0.0000 0.6039 0.6039 0.0000
34 3.5440 3.5440 0.0000 2.3657 2.3657 0.0000
37 -16.9100 -16.9100 -0.0000 -30.6924 -30.6924 0.0000
41 17.0643 17.1051 -0.0408 -3.7942 -3.8015 0.0073

Department of Electrical Engineering, Univ. College of Engg., Osmania University, Hyderabad, A.P, INDIA.
 16th NATIONAL POWER SYSTEMS CONFERENCE, 15th-17th DECEMBER, 2010 340

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VI. C ONCLUSION
This paper presents the distributed computing approach
to load flow problem in power system. Conventional Fast
Decoupled Load flow is used for the solving the problem. The
interconnected system is partitioned into smaller clusters and
the internal external and boundary buses are identified for the
partitioned system. The boundary buses in the internal system
are treated as load buses and that in the external system as gen-
erator buses. The distributed load flow is done on the reduced
system. The simulation is done on IEEE Standard 14 bus and
30 Bus Systems. The results of the base case load flow and the
distributed load flow are compared. The error is found to be
minimum for the test cases under study. Hence the distributed
load flow study can be implemented in a restructured power
system using distributed energy management system.
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Department of Electrical Engineering, Univ. College of Engg., Osmania University, Hyderabad, A.P, INDIA.