M.Sc.

Project Report

Load Flow Analysis of Unbalanced Radial Distribution Feeder

on MATLAB/Simulink

Submitted By

Qasim Mehboob
19-MS-EE-190

Submitted To

Dr. Intisar Ali Sajjad

Assistant Professor

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

UNIVERSITY OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
TAXILA

January 2020
 Table of Contents

Problem Statement 4

Aims & Objectives 4

Literature Review 5

Methodology of Research 5

Utilization of Research Results and Future Work 6

References 7

Teacher’s Comments 10

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1. Problem Statement
Load flow analysis is a significant task for power system planning and
operational investigations. Certain applications, especially in distribution automation
and optimization of a power system, repeated load flow analysis is required and in
these applications, it is important to obtain efficient load flow solution.
Distribution system is inherently unbalanced because of single phase, two
phase and three phase laterals, unbalanced loads and unsymmetrical lines. So the
conventional load flow methods cannot be directly applied to the solution of radial
distribution system. Also distribution networks have high X/R ratio so conventional
methods may provide inaccurate results and may not converge. For this purpose
some accurate models for distribution system are required .Today we have a large
number of complex radial distribution networks so development of various computer
programs have become necessary for the solution of practical system. In this project
we have developed a MATLAB/Simulink model of IEEE 13 and 34 node standard
unbalanced radial distribution feeders for the purpose of load flow solution. Load flow
is performed in MATLAB/Simulink and the results are compared with IEEE
distribution system analysis subcommittee report.

2. Aims & Objectives

The main of aim of this project is to develop a MATLAB/Simulink model of
IEEE standard radial distribution test feeders for the purpose of load flow solution.
Objectives of this project are.
a) Planning and modification of existing system
b) Distribution System Optimization
c) Distribution System Automation

3. Literature Review
Mostly load flow solution for balanced system is available. However, not much
work is available for unbalanced radial distribution networks. Distribution networks
are unbalanced because of single phase, two phase and three phase laterals,
unsymmetrical lines and unbalanced loads. This work presents a Simulink model of
IEEE 13 and 34 node standard radial distribution test feeders. Simulink model uses
POWERGUI block to perform load flow. Furthermore, the results are compared with

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the IEEE distribution system analysis subcommittee report for validation of the
model.
Load flow analysis is a significant task for power system planning and
operational investigations. Certain applications, especially in distribution automation
and optimization of a power system, repeated load flow analysis is required. Today
we have a large number of complex radial distribution networks. These systems are
difficult to analyze manually. So development of computer software and programs
have become necessary. Recently various software for the solution of unbalanced
radial distribution feeder have been developed [1]. These software using iterative
methods solve load flow for unbalanced distribution feeders with some assumptions
made for the line and load models [2]. In recent years comparison for these
unbalanced node test feeder configuration has been provided utilizing different
software like CYME [3] power engineering software, DIGSILENT power factory and
PSCAD [4].However, no such work had been carried out using MATLAB/Simulink.
Some algorithms have also been developed in recent years for load flow of
unbalanced radial distribution networks. These include Forward and Backward
sweep method [5,6], Compensation method [7], Implicit Gauss method, modified
Newton [8] or any other miscellaneous power flow methods are the different
algorithms [9].
Load flow model presented in this work can be used in future research for
planning design and operation of the electrical distribution network. This Simulink
model can be utilized in future for for cable sizing, transformer tape setting, and
selection of optimal capacitor placements to minimize the losses. Furthermore, it can
also be utilized in distribution networks with integrated distributed energy sources.

4. Methodology of Research
IEEE 13 and 34 node radial distribution feeders are used as test feeders for
this work. Simulation is performed on MATLAB/Simulink and POWERGUI block of
Simulink is used to perform the load flow and finally the results are compared with
IEEE distribution system analysis subcommittee report.

4.1 Theoretical Studies

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 For the analysis of electrical transmission lines following assumptions are
made.
a) Three phase line currents are balanced.
b) Transmission lines are transposed i.e. lines are balanced.

Unfortunately, radial distribution systems do not lend themselves either of the

two assumptions. Currents are not balanced because of the dominance of single
phase loads and distribution lines are never transposed nor are they placed in a
triangular configuration. In the absence of these two assumptions it is necessary to
introduce an accurate method for calculating line impedance. A general
representation of a distribution system with n conductors can be formulated by using
Carson’s equations, resulting to a n x n primitive impedance matrix. Primitive
impedance matrix contains the self and mutual impedance of each branch [5].

A convenient representation can be characterized as a 3×3 matrix in the

phase form, compromising of the self and mutual equivalent impedances for the
three phases. The standard technique used to frame this matrix is the Kron's
reduction [10].

For instance a three wire grounded system with a neutral results in a 4 x 4

primitive impedance matrix which after Krons’s reduction results in a 3 x 3 phase
impedance matrix.

4.2 Experimental Set Up

Data for the test feeders are taken from [10]. Data for the test feeders
provides following information.

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Line segment Data: Line segment data provides information about the length of the
line segment, configuration code and the nodes between which the line segment is
connected. This information is utilized in calculation of phase impedance matrix.
Load Models: Two types of loads are used in the Simulink:
1. Spot load: Loads are connected at different nodes.
2. Distributed load: Load is distributed along a line section i.e. half load is
connected at the start of line segment and half at the end of line segment.
Loads are single and three phase balanced and unbalanced loads. These
loads are modeled specified as constant power, constant impedance or constant
current.
Shunt Capacitors: The shunt capacitor banks are connected as three phase wye or
delta and single phase line to ground and line to line.
Voltage Regulators: Step type voltage regulators are assumed and can be
connected to the substation and/or to a specified line segment. However, in our
Simulink model we have replaced the voltage regulators with a three phase
generating source.

4.2.1 The IEEE 13 Node Test Feeder

Test feeders are provided by IEEE Distribution system analysis subcommittee
to be used by software developers and field engineers for validation purposes. IEEE
13 node test feeder is 4.16kV feeder consisting of one substation voltage regulator,
one in-line transformer, capacitor banks and spot and distributed loads. One line
diagram of the 13 node test feeder is shown in Fig. 1.

650

646 645 632 633 634

611 684 692 675

671

652 680

Fig.1: Single line diagram of 13 node test feeder

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 Following model is drawn on Simulink using SIMSCAPE Power system
library. SIMSCAPE components consists of generating sources, loads, transformer
and asymmetrical distribution lines. POWERGUI block is used to calculate load flow.

Fig. 2: Simulink model for 13 node test feeder

4.2.2 The IEEE 34 Node Test Feeder

One line diagram of 34 node test feeder is shown in Fig. 3. Test feeder
consists of two in-line voltage regulators, an in-line transformer, shunt capacitors and
spot and distributed loads.

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 848

822 846

820 844
864
818 842
802 806 808 812 814 850 824 826 834 860 836
858 840
816
832 862
800 888 890
810
838
852

828 830 854 856

Fig. 3: Single line diagram of 34 node test feeder

BUS Simulink IEEE Simulink IEEE Simulink IEEE

Va(pu) Va(pu) Vb(pu) Vb(pu) Vc(pu) Vc(pu)
NO.
611
632
633
634
645
646
652
671
675
680
684
692

4.3 Method of Analysis

Discuss the method analysis that has been used in your base paper.

4.4 Result and Discussion

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 Write down about the results of your implementation and compare them with your base paper with
discussion.

5. Utilization of Research Results and Future Work

Write about the expected utilization of results and future directions to improve/extend this work here.

6. References

[1] Kersting, William H. "Radial distribution test feeders." IEEE Transactions on

Power Systems, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 975-985. 1991.
[2] Mahmoud, Karar, and Mamdouh Abdel-Akher. "Efficient three-phase power-flow
method for unbalanced radial distribution systems." Melecon 2010-2010 15th
IEEE Mediterranean Electrotechnical Conference. IEEE, 2010, pp. 125-130.
[3] CYME QA validation Tests Cases, “Load Flow-Unbalanced-IEEE 34 Node Test
Feeder”, CYME International, June 2011.
[4] Ishak, Nurul Huda, et al. "Performance comparison of electric power flow
solutions using PSCAD." 2010 International Conference on Science and Social
Research. IEEE, 2010, pp. 542-547.
[5] Kersting, William H. Distribution system modeling and analysis, 2006, CRC
press.
[6] Khushalani, Sarika, and Noel Schulz. "Unbalanced distribution power flow with
distributed generation." IEEE PES Transmission and Distribution Conference and
Exhibition. 2006, pp. 301-306.
[7] Zhu, Y., and Kevin Tomsovic. "Adaptive power flow method for distribution
systems with dispersed generation." IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, vol.
17, no. 3, pp. 822-827.
[8] Teng, Jen-Hao, and Chuo-Yean Chang. "A novel and fast three-phase load flow
for unbalanced radial distribution systems." IEEE Transactions on Power
Systems, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 1238-1244. 2002.

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[9] Chen, Tsai-Hsiang, and Nien-Che Yang. "Loop frame of reference based three-
phase power flow for unbalanced radial distribution systems." Electric power
systems research, vol. 80, no. 7, pp. 799-806. 2010.
[10] Radial Distribution Test Feeders, available online at
http://ewh.ieee.org/soc/pes/dsacom/testfeeders.html

Example Journal Paper:

[11] Peter Hernon and Cheryl Metoyer-Duran, “Problem statements: An

exploratory study of their function, significance, and form”, Library & Information
Science Research, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 71–92. Jan. 1993.
[12] Didier Le Gall, “MPEG: A video compression standard for multimedia
applications,” Communications ACM, vol. 34, no. 4, pp. 46–58, April 1991.

Example Conference Paper:

[13] Gulistan Raja and M. J. Mirza, “Performance comparison of advanced video

coding H.264 standard with baseline H.263 and H.263+ standards,” in Proc. 4th
IEEE International Symposium on Communications & Information Technologies,
ISCIT 04, Sapporo, Japan, 2004, pp. 743–746.

Example Book:

[14] Iain E.G. Richardson, Video Codec Design, Great Britain, John Wiley & Sons,
2003, ISBN: xx-yyyy-zzzz.

Example Web Link:

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[15] MPEG Software Simulation Group, “The MSSG homepage”, available on-line
at http://www.mpeg.org/MPEG/ MSSG, 2004.

Example Standard:

[16] ITU-T “Video Coding for low bit rate communication,” ITU-T Recommendation
H.263; version 1, Nov 1995; version 2, Jan. 1998; version 3, Nov. 2000.

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7. Teacher’s Comments
(To be filled by the concerned teacher during project evaluation)

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