Time-Efficient Load Flow Technique for Radial Distribution Systems with Voltage-Dependent Loads

This paper presents an efficient load flow (LF) technique that exhibits an improved convergence characteristic to be employed in balanced radial distribution systems (RDSs) having voltage dependent loads (VDLs). The key enabler of this approach is the construction of load injection to bus voltage (LIBV) matrix that is utilized to carry out the backward forward sweep of power flow calculation in a single step. The bus voltages may be determined from the load injection directly by incorporating the LIBV matrix which, in turn, decreases the execution time when compared to other LF techniques. Further, a novel and generalized algorithm is proposed to construct LIBV in a fast manner. In addition, the effect of annual load growth is examined in this work. The proposed technique is tested on three balanced benchmark RDSs, which are the 30-, 33- and 118-bus systems with different VDL models. The obtained results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach compared to the results of the other approaches in the literature. Also, it is revealed that the proposed algorithm is computationally faster and more robust than the conventional LF techniques that are used to analyze distribution system having VDLs.