Abstract

Power flow, or load flow, is widely used in power system operation and planning. The power flow model of a power system is built using the relevant network, load, and generation data. Outputs of the power flow model include voltages at different buses, line flows in the network, and system losses. These outputs are obtained by solving nodal power balance equations. Since these equations are nonlinear, iterative techniques such as the Newton-Raphson, the Gauss-Seidel, and the fast-decoupled methods are commonly used to solve this problem. The problem is simplified as a linear problem in the DC power flow technique. This chapter will provide an overview of different techniques used to solve the power flow problem.

Keywords: power flow, load flow, iterative techniques, Newton-Raphson, Gauss-Seidel, fast-decoupled, DC power flow
