Proc. Natl. Sci. Counc.

ROC(A)
Vol. 24, No. 4, 2000. pp. 259-264

A Network-Topology-based Three-Phase Load Flow for

Distribution Systems
JEN-HAO TENG

Department of Electrical Engineering

I-Shou University
Kaohsiung, Taiwan, R.O.C.

(Received August 16, 1999; Accepted December 17, 1999)

ABSTRACT

A network-topology-based three-phase distribution power flow algorithm is developed in this paper. The
special topology of a distribution network has been fully exploited to make obtaining a direct solution possible.
Two developed matrices are enough to obtain the power flow solution: they are the bus-injection to branch-current
matrix and the branch-current to bus-voltage matrix. The traditional Newton Raphson and Gauss implicit Z matrix
algorithms, which need LU decomposition and forward/backward substitution of the Jacobian matrix or the Y
admittance matrix, are not needed for this new development. The features of this method are robustness and com-
puter economy. Tests show that the proposed method converges in almost all circumstances for distribution sys-
tems and has great potential for use with distribution automation system.

Key Words: distribution automation system, distribution load flow, distribution management system, Gauss
implicit Z matrix method, Newton-Raphson method

I. Introduction often not valid for distribution systems. In addition to per-

Distribution load flow is a very important tool for
the analysis of distribution systems and is used in opera-
tional as well as planning environments as described by
Lin and Chen (1986), the IEEE Tutorial Course on Distri-
bution Automation (IEEE, 1988) and the IEEE Tutori-
al Course on Power Distribution Planning (IEEE, 1992).
Many real-time applications in the distribution automa-
tion system (DAS) and distribution management system
(DMS), such as network optimization, Var planning,
switching, state estimation and so forth, need the support
of a robust and efficient power flow method. Such a
power flow solution must be able to model the special fea-
tures of distribution systems in sufficient detail. Some of
the inherent features of electric distribution systems are:
(1) a radial network structure,
(2) an unbalanced distributed load and unbalanced op-
eration,
(3) an extremely large number of branches/nodes, and
(4) a wide range of resistance and reactance values.
These features cause the traditional power flow methods,
the Gauss-Seidel and Newton-Raphson techniques, which
arise from the transmission area, to lack either computer
economy or robustness in distribution applications. In
particular, the assumptions necessary for the simplifi-
cations used in the standard fast-decoupled Newton-
Raphson method as reported by Stott and Alsac (1974) are
formance, all the above mentioned characteristics need to
be considered to qualify a good distribution load flow al-
gorithm.
Some efforts have been made to overcome these dif-
ficulties. Some of these methods, such as those of Birt et
al. (1976), Chen et al. (1991a, 1991b), Chen and Chang
(1992), and Teng and Lin (1994), based on the general
meshed topology of a transmission system, are also appli-
cable to distribution systems. The Gauss implicit Z-ma-
trix method as reported by Chen et al. (1991a, 1991b)
does not explicitly exploit the radial structure of the distri-
bution system and, therefore, requires finding the solution
of a set of equations whose size follows the order of the
number of buses. Recent researches have led to some new
ideas on how to deal with distribution networks. These
ideas may require new data formats, such as the compen-
sation-based technique reported by Shirmohammadi et al.
(1988), where the forward-backward sweep algorithm is
adopted in the solution scheme. Luo and Semlyen (1990)
requires a definition for feeder breakpoints, which has to
be specified by examining the feeder segments one-by-
one. Cheng and Shirmohammadi (1994) adopts the feed-
er-lateral based model, which requires the “layer-lateral”
based data format. In addition to the conventional bus-
branch oriented data format, new data bases have to be
built and maintained for these models to run.
The algorithm proposed in this paper is a “novel but

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 J.H. Teng

classic” technique, running on the conventional bus- The relations between the bus voltages and branch cur-
branch oriented data format used by most utilities. Our rents in Fig. 1 can be expressed as
goal is to develop a formulation which exploits the topo-
logical characteristics of a distribution system and solves
Va  VA   Zaa − n Zab − n Zac − n   I Aa 
the distribution load flow directly. This means that the       
traditional Newton Raphson and Gauss implicit Z matrix Vb  = VB  −  Zba − n Zbb − n Zbc − n   I Bb  . (3)
algorithms, which need LU decomposition and forward/       
backward substitution of the Jacobian matrix or the Y Vc  VC   Zca − n Zcb − n Zcc − n   ICc 
admittance matrix, are not needed in this new develop-
ment. Two developed matrices, the bus-injection to For any phase which fails to present, the correspond-
branch-current matrix and branch-current to bus-voltage ing row and column in this matrix will contain null-en-
matrix, and a simple matrix multiplication are utilized to tries.
obtain the power flow solution. The features of this me-
thod are robustness and computer economy. Tests show III. Formulation Development
that the proposed method has great potential for real-time
operation. The proposed method is based on two matrices, the
bus-injection to branch-current matrix and branch-current
II. Unbalanced Three-Phase Model to bus-voltage matrix, and on the equivalent current injec-
tion. They are developed in this section.
Figure 1 shows a three-phase line section between
Bus i and j. The line parameters can be obtained using the 1. Equivalent Current Injection
method developed by Carson (1926). A 4 × 4 matrix,
which takes into account the self and mutual coupling For distribution systems, the models which are based
terms, can be expressed as on the equivalent current injection, as reported by Shir-
mohammadi et al. (1988), Chen et al. (1991a) and Teng
 Zaa Zab Zac Zan  and Lin (1994), are more convenient to use. At each Bus
  i, the complex power Si is specified by
 Zba Zbb Zbc Zbn 
[ Zabcn ] =  . (1)
Si = ( Pi + jQi ) i = 1, 2, L, N ,
 Zca Zcb Zcc Zcn  (4)
 
 Zna Znb Znc Znn  and the corresponding equivalent current injection at the
k-th iteration of the solution is
For a well-grounded distribution system, VN and Vn shown
in Fig. 1 are assumed to be zero, and Kron’s reduction can *
 P + jQ 
be applied in Eq. (1). Equation (2) is designed to include Iik = Iir (Vi k ) + jIii (Vi k ) =  i k i  , (5)
the effects of the neutral or ground wire and to be used in  Vi 
the unbalanced load flow calculation:
where
 Zaa − n Zab − n Zac − n 
  V ik is the node voltage at the k-th iteration;
[ Zabc ] =  Zba − n Zbb − n Zbc − n  . (2)
 
 Zca − n Zcb − n Zcc − n  I ik is the equivalent current injection at the k-th itera-
tion;

Iir and Iii are the real and imaginary parts of the equiv-
alent current injection at the k-th iteration, respec-
tively.

2. Building Algorithms for Developed Matrices

A. Bus-Injection to Branch-Current Matrix

The simple distribution system shown in Fig. 2 will

Fig. 1. A three-phase line section. be used as an example. The power injections can be con-

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 A Rapid Distribution Load Flow

umn of the i-th bus of the BIBC ma-

Fig. 2. A simple distribution system.
verted into the equivalent current injections using Eq. (5),
and a set of equations can be written by applying Kir-
chhoff’s Current Law (KCL) to the distribution network.
Then, the branch currents can be formulated as a function
of the equivalent current injections. For example, the
branch currents B5, B3 and B1 can be expressed as
trix to the column of the j-th bus and
fill a + 1 in the position of the k-th row
and the j-th bus column.
Procedure (3) – Repeat Procedure (2) until all the line
sections are included in the BIBC ma-
trix.
The building Procedure (2) for the BIBC matrix is shown
in Fig. 3.
The algorithm can be easily expanded to a multi-
phase line section or bus. For example, if the line section
between Bus i and Bus j is a three-phase line section, then
the corresponding branch current Bi will be a 3 × 1 vector,
and the +1 in the BIBC matrix will become a 3 × 3 identi-
ty matrix.
B. Branch-Current to Bus-Voltage Matrix
The relations between the branch currents and bus
voltages as shown in Fig. 2 can be obtained by using Eq.
(3). For example, the voltages of Bus 2, 3, and 4 are

B5 = I6 , V2 = V1 − B1 Z12 , (8a)

B3 = I4 + I5 , V3 = V2 − B2 Z23 , (8b)

B1 = I2 + I3 + I4 + I5 + I6 . (6) V4 = V3 − B3 Z34 , (8c)

Furthermore, the Bus-Injection to Branch-Current (BIBC) where Vi is the bus voltage of Bus i, and Zij is the line
matrix can be obtained as impedance between Bus i and Bus j.
Substituting Eqs. (8a) and (8b) into Eq. (8c), the
 B1  1 1 1 1 1   I2  voltage of Bus 4 can be rewritten as
    
 B2  0 1 1 1 1   I3  V4 = V1 − B1 Z12 − B2 Z23 − B3 Z34 . (9)
    
 B3  = 0 0 1 1 0  I4  . (7a)
     From Eq. (9), it can be seen that the bus voltage can be
 B4  0 0 0 1 0   I5  expressed as a function of the branch currents, line param-
     eters and substation voltage. Similar procedures can be
 B5  0 0 0 0 1   I6  utilized for other buses, and the Branch-Current to Bus-
Voltage (BCBV) matrix can be derived as
Equation (7a) can be expressed in the general form as
V1  V2   Z12 0 0 0 0   B1 
[ B] = [ BIBC][ I ]. (7b)       
V1  V3   Z12 Z23 0 0 0   B2 
The constant BIBC matrix has non-zero entries of +1       
V1  − V4  =  Z12 Z23 Z34 0 0   B3  .
only.       
By inspecting Eq. (7), we can develop a building V1  V5   Z12 Z23 Z34 Z45 0   B4 
algorithm for the BIBC matrix as follows:       
Procedure (1) – For a distribution system with m- V1  V6   Z12 Z23 0 0 Z36   B5 
branch sections and an n-bus, the di- (10a)
mension of the BIBC matrix is m × (n
– 1). Rewriting Eq. (10a) in the general form, we have
Procedure (2) – If a line section (Bk) is located be-
tween Bus i and Bus j, copy the col- [ ∆V ] = [ BCBV ][ B]. (10b)

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 J.H. Teng
Fig. 3. The building Procedure (2) for the BIBC matrix.
Based on Eq. (10), a building algorithm for the BCBV
matrix can be developed as follows:
Procedure (4) – For a distribution system with m-
branch sections and an n-bus, the di-
mension of the BCBV matrix is (n – 1)
× m.
Procedure (5) – If a line section (Bk) is located be-
tween Bus i and Bus j, copy the row of
the i-th bus of the BCBV matrix to the
row of the j-th bus, and fill the line
impedance (Zij) in the position of the j-
th bus row and the k-th column.
Procedure (6) – Repeat Procedure (5) until all the line
sections are included in the BCBV ma-
trix.
The building Procedure (5) for the BCBV matrix is shown
in Fig. 4.
The algorithm can be expanded to a multi-phase line
section or bus easily. For example, if the line section be-
tween Bus i and Bus j is a three-phase line section, then
the corresponding branch current Bi will be a 3 × 1 vector,
and Zij in the BCBV matrix will be a 3 × 3 impedance
matrix as shown in Eq. (2).
From Figs. 3 and 4, it can be seen that the building
algorithms for the BIBC and BCBV matrices are similar.
In fact, these two matrices were built in the same subrou-
tine of our test program. Therefore, the amount of compu-
tation resources needed can be reduced. In addition, the
building algorithms are based on the traditional bus-
branch oriented data base, so the data preparation time of
the proposed algorithm can be reduced and can be inte-
grated into the existing DAS.
3. Solution Techniques
The BIBC and BCBV matrices were developed
based on the topological structure of distribution systems.
The BIBC matrix is responsible for the relations between
the bus current injections and branch currents. The corre-
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Fig. 4. The building Procedure (5) for the BCBV matrix.
sponding variation of the branch currents, which is gener-
ated by the variation at the current injection buses, can be
found directly by using the BIBC matrix. The BCBV
matrix is responsible for the relations between the branch
currents and bus voltages. The corresponding variation of
the bus voltages, which is generated by the variation of the
branch currents, can be found directly by using the BCBV
matrix. Combining Eqs. (7b) and (10b), the relations be-
tween the bus current injections and bus voltages can be ex-
pressed as
[ ∆V ] = [ BCBV ][ BIBC][ I ]
= [ DLF][ I ], (11)
and the solution for the distribution load flow can be
obtained by solving Eqs. (12a) and (12b) iteratively:
Pi + jQi *
Iik = Iir (Vi k ) + jIii (Vi k ) = ( ) , (12a)
Vi k
[∆V ] = [ DLF][ I ].
k +1 k
(12b)
Compared with the traditional Newton Raphson and
Gauss implicit Z matrix algorithms, which need LU de-
composition and forward/backward substitution of the
Jacobian matrix or the Y admittance matrix, the new for-
mulation uses only the DLF matrix to solve load flow
problem. The time-consuming LU decomposition and for-
ward/backward substitution procedures are not needed.
This considerably reduces the amount of computation re-
sources needed and makes the proposed method suitable
for on-line operation.
The proposed algorithm is summarized as follows:
(1) Input data.
(2) Use Procedures (1), (2), (3) and Eq. (7) to form the
BIBC matrix.
(3) Use Procedures (4), (5), (6) and Eq. (10) to form
the BCBV matrix.
 A Rapid Distribution Load Flow

(4) Use Eq. (11) to form the DLF matrix. Table 1. Final Converged Voltage Solutions
(5) Iteration k = 0.
(6) Iteration k = k + 1. Method 1 Method 2
Bus
(7) Solve for the three-phase power flow by using Eqs. Number |V|(pu) Angle |V|(pu) Angle Phase
(12a) and (12b), and update voltages. (Rad.) (Rad.).
(8) If max k+1 k
i (I i  – I i ) > tolerance, goto (6). 1 1.0000 0.0000 1.0000 0.0000 A
(9) Report and end. 1 1.0000 –2.0944 1.0000 –2.0944 B
1 1.0000 2.0944 1.0000 2.0944 C
2 0.9840 0.0032 0.9839 0.0032 A
IV. Test Results 2 0.9714 –2.0902 0.9712 –2.0902 B
2 0.9699 2.0939 0.9697 2.0939 C
The proposed three-phase power flow program was 3 0.9833 0.0031 0.9832 0.0031 A
implemented using the Borland C++ language and tested 4 0.9653 –2.0897 0.9652 –2.0897 B
4 0.9672 2.0932 0.9669 2.0932 C
on a Windows-98 based Pentium-II (350) PC. Two meth- 5 0.9644 –2.0898 0.9640 –2.0898 B
ods were used in the tests, and the convergence tolerance 6 0.9652 2.0930 0.9650 2.0930 C
was set at 0.001. 7 0.9686 2.0937 0.9683 2.0937 C
Method 1: The Gauss implicit Z-Bus method as report- 8 0.9674 2.0936 0.9671 2.0936 C
ed by Chen et al. (1991a).
Method 2: The proposed algorithm.
Table 2. Execution Time and Number of Iterations

1. Accuracy Comparison Method 1 Method 2

For any new method, it is important to make sure Feeder Execution Number of Execution Number of
Time (sec.) Iterations Time (sec.) Iterations
that the final solution obtained using the proposed method
is the same as that obtained using the existing method. A IEEE-13 0.0165 3 0.00565 3
simple 8-bus system (equivalent 13-bus system), including IEEE-37 0.2190 3 0.0181 3
IEEE-123 2.4453 4 0.1127 4
three-phase, double-phase and single-phase line sections
and buses, is shown in Fig. 5. The final voltage solutions
obtained using Method 1 and Method 2 are shown in
Table 1. From Table 1, it can be seen that the final con- unbalanced loads. The execution time and number for
verged voltage solutions obtained using Method 1 are very iterations for these two methods are shown in Table 2.
close to the solutions obtained using Method 2. This From Table 2, it can be seen that Method 2 outperformed
means that the proposed method can be used to solve for Method 1, especially in the case of a large-scale distribu-
the distribution load flow. tion system since time-consuming procedures, such as LU
decomposition and forward/backward substitution, are not
2. Performance Tests needed in Method 2. Moreover, the results shown in
Table 2 reveal that the number of iterations needed by
The test feeders were 13, 37 and 123 bus, three- Method 2 is stable. Method 2 is, definitely, a robust algo-
phase IEEE test feeders as reported by Kersting (1991). rithm.
The feeders were predominantly three-phase lateral with
V. Discussion and Conclusion
In this paper, a direct approach algorithm for distri-
bution load flow has been developed. The features of this
method are robustness and computer economy. Two ma-
trices, developed based on the topological structure of dis-
tribution systems, have been used to solve the load flow
problem. The BIBC matrix is responsible for the varia-
tion between the bus current injection and branch current,
and the BCBV matrix is responsible for the variation
between the branch current and bus voltage. The pro-
posed solution algorithm is primarily based on these two
matrices and matrix multiplication. Time-consuming pro-
cedures, such as LU factorization and forward/backward
Fig. 5. An 8-bus distribution system. substitution of the Jacobian matrix are not needed, and the

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 J.H. Teng
ill-conditioned problem which occurs at the Jacobian ma-
trix does not exist in the solution procedure. Therefore,
the proposed method is robust and economical. Test
results show that the proposed method is suitable for
power flow calculations in large-scale distribution sys-
tems. Other issues involved in distribution system opera-
tion, such as multi-phase operation with unbalanced and
distributed loads, voltage regulators and capacitors with
automatic tap controls, will be discussed in a future paper.
Acknowledgment
This paper was sponsored by the National Science Council,
R.O.C., under research grant NSC 88-2213-E-214-041. The author
would like to thank Dr. Shun-Yu Chan for his useful comments on this
paper. The author would also like to thank the reviewers for their contri-
butions to this paper.
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LU Y