1
Unbalanced Three-Phase Continuation Power
Flow for Distribution Networks with Distributed
Generation
Jinquan Zhao, Member, IEEE, Xiaolong Fan, Zonghe Gao, Zemei Dai, Gang Chen
Abstract—Continuation power flow is an important tool for
assessing power system voltage stability. A continuation power
flow method for distribution networks is proposed in view of
unbalanced three-phase lines and loads in distribution networks
with distributed generations (DG). The proposed method consists
of tangent predictor and Newton corrector. A local geometric
parameterization technique is utilized for the characteristics of
the P-V curves of unbalanced three-phase systems. A double-
switching logic is proposed for handling the capability
constraints of DGs which modeled as PV and PQ buses. A scheme
for identifying the type of bifurcation is also given. Simulation
results on IEEE 33-bus distribution system show that the
proposed method is effective in tracing the P-V curves of three-
phase distribution systems and computing the voltage stability
critical point as well as identifying the type of bifurcation.
Index Terms—Voltage Stability Assessment, Continuation
Power Flow, Distribution Network, Distributed Generation (DG),
Bus type Double-Switching Logic, Identification of Bifurcation
I. INTRODUCTION
R ECENTLY, integration of distributed generation (DG) in
distribution networks is increasing rapidly, which is
going to play a prominent role in active management of
distribution networks. As a consequence, DG units may have a
significant impact on the power flow, voltage profile, stability
and quality of distribution systems. The active distribution
network (ADN) is an effective approach to solve these
problems. While the voltage stability problem for transmission
systems has been investigated for many years, the voltage
stability problem for distribution systems has received little
attention.1
In [1-2] a radial distribution network was reduced into a
two-bus equivalent model for voltage stability assessment. A
voltage stability index based on bi-quadratic equation relating
the voltage magnitudes at the sending and receiving ends of
the branch was introduced in [3]. The bus with the minimum
stability index is the most sensitive to the voltage collapse.
However, this index cannot consider the nonlinear
1
This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China
(51077042); The National High Technology Research and Development
Program of China(863 Program) (2012AA050207).
Jinquan Zhao, Xiaolong Fan and Gang Chen are with the college of
Energy and Electrical Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, China.
(e-mail: zhaojinquan@hhu.edu.cn).
Zonghe Gao and Zemei Dai are with the State Grid Electric Power
Research Institute, Nanjing, 210003, China.
978-1-4673-8040-9/15/$31.00 ©2015 IEEE
characteristics of power systems such as the reactive power
limits of generators and it is not suitable for accurate
determination of the distance to critical point [4].
Load margin is a universal index for voltage stability
analysis. Among the load margin computation methods, the
continuation power flow (CPF) is an efficient tool [5-11]. Due
to the fact that there are unbalanced three-phase lines and
unbalanced three-phase loads in distribution networks, it is
necessary to extend the continuation power flow method to
three-phase distribution systems.
In [12] a CPF approach is presented for voltage stability
analysis of unbalanced three-phase transmission systems
without considering DGs. In [13] a CPF approach for
unbalanced distribution systems was proposed and the arc-
length parameterization and nonlinear predictor were
employed. In [14] a new method is applied to calculate the
maximum loading point of unbalanced three-phase
distribution systems. This method was based on the secant
predictor and the backward/forward sweep method was
utilized as the corrector. Because there are no matrices in this
method, it cannot employ any parameterization techniques and
fails to overcome the divergence of backward/forward sweep
method at the critical point. On the basis of [13], the impacts
of DG penetration on static stability limit and system voltages
are investigated in [15]. However, the operation constraints of
DGs and the identification of bifurcation type were not studied
in the above works.
A continuation power flow for unbalanced three-phase
distribution networks with DGs is proposed. The local
geometric parameterization technique is adopted to handle the
special nature of P-V curve. A double-switching logic is
presented to handle the operation constraints of PV-type and
PQ-type DGs and a method for identifying the type of
bifurcation is also given. The numerical simulations show that
the proposed tool can be well applied to calculate the voltage
stability critical point of unbalanced distribution systems.
The paper is structured as follows. In Section II, the three-
phase power flow model is introduced. In Section III, the
model and algorithm of three-phase CPF are presented in
detail. The bus type double-switching logic is given and the
method of bifurcation type identification is presented. In
Section IV, The process of the proposed method is
summarized. Then in Section V, we give some numerical
examples where the proposed method is implemented.
 2

II. THREE-PHASE POWER FLOW

wf º ª dθ º
p
ª wf wf
« wθ p « p» ª0º
wO » « dV »
Let n be the total number of buses. The three-phase power
wV p « r1» (6)
mismatch equations are given by: « » ¬ ¼
n c ¬« ek ¼» «¬ d O »¼
'Pi p Pisp  Vi p ¦ ¦ V jm (Gijpm cosTijpm  Bijpm sin Tijpm ) (1)
j 1m a where e k is a row vector with all elements are zero except the
n c kth element equals to 1.
'Qip Qisp  Vi p ¦ ¦ V jm (Gijpm sin Tijpm  Bijpm cos Tijpm ) (2) Once the tangent vector and the step-size are determined,
j 1m a
the prediction of the next solution can be computed by:
where subscripts i and j represent the bus number and
superscripts p and m represent the phases a, b, c. The voltage ª θ p º ª θ0p º ª dθ p º
«  p» « p» « p»
magnitudes are represented by V. T ij represents the angle « V » « V0 »  V « dV » (7)
« O » « O0 » «¬ d O »¼
differences. Gijpm and Bijpm are the real and imaginary parts of ¬ ¼ ¬ ¼
system admittance matrix element respectively. where θ 0p , V0p and O0 are the current solutions. θ p , V p and
The nonlinear equations (1)-(2) can be combined in
O are the predicted solutions. V is the scalar step size.
compact form:
ª P p  P(θ p , V p ) º C. Corrector
f(x) « sp p »
0 (3) In the corrector step, Newton–Raphson algorithm is used to
¬Q s  Q(θ , V )¼
p
solve the augmented power flow equations (8) with the
where Psp and Q sp are the specified active and reactive power predicted solution as the initial point.
vectors of phase p respectively. x is the state variable vector ª f (θ p , V p , O ) º
« » 0 (8)
and given by x [θa , θb , θc , Va , Vb , Vc ]T .
¬G (θ , V , O ) ¼
p p

where G(θ p , V p , O ) is the additional parameterized equation

III. THREE-PHASE CONTINUATION POWER FLOW
which is determined by parameterization schemes.
A. Generation/Load Growth Direction
D. Local Geometric Parameterization
To simulate generation and load change in ADN, the load
It has been found that at least one of the P-V curves at a bus
parameter O is introduced into the three-phase power flow in unbalanced three-phase systems presents an “Acute Angle
equations. Thus, the generation and load can be represented by: Phenomena” as shown in Fig.1 [12, 15]. If an improper
­ PGip PGip 0  O'PGip parameter is selected as the continuation parameter by using
° p the conventional parameterization techniques in [12-13], the
® PLi PLi 0  O'PLi
p p
(4)
CPF computation would be failed at the critical point [8]. To
°Q p Q p  O'Q p
¯ Li Li 0 Li handle this situation, a local geometric parameterization
p p method [11] is adopted here.
where PLi 0 and QLi 0 are the base case active and reactive load p
Vk
powers of phase p at bus i. PGip 0 is the base case active Vkp0
generation power of phase p at bus i. 'P , 'P and 'Q p
Gi
p
Li
p
Li
are the specific variation in generation and load of phase p at (Vk p , O )
bus i. The real power output limits of DGs were considered
and they are designed to reach their limits simultaneously. If (Vk p , O )
their upper limits are met, then the total load increases are
balanced by the visual generator at the connection bus (set as
the slack bus). 0 O
The parameterized power flow equations can be written in Fig.1. Diagram of geometric parameterization
vector forms as follows:
The parameterized equation of the local geometric
f (θ p , V p , O ) 0 (5) parameterization is given by:
B. Predictor G(θ p , V p , O ) (Vkp  Vkp0 )  E (O  O0 ) 0 (9)
The predictor techniques can be divided into two classes: where (O0 , Vkp0 ) is the reference point on O  V plane. E is
the ODE-based methods (including the tangent method [5, 12] the geometric parameter. The phase with highest change rate
and the secant method [7, 14]) and nonlinear methods [13, 15]. of voltage magnitude is taken as the reference bus and its
In this paper, the tangent predictor is utilized to calculate the number is recorded as k.
tangent vector [dθ p , dV p , d O ]T by solving (6):
xk : dVkp ^
max max dV1 p , " , max dVnp
p a ,b , c p a ,b , c ` (10)
 3

In Fig.1, the origin (0, 0) is taken as the reference point in iteration. If IGip ! I max
p
i , then phase p should be switched to PI
the upper part of the P-V curve, and then the geometric
parameter E1 can be calculated as follows: bus and I Gip is set to I max
p
i . On the other hand, phase p is a PI

Vkp  0 Vkp bus in the previous iteration. If Qip  QGip , then phase p is still
E1 (11)
a PI bus. If Qip ! QGip , then the comparison between I Gip and
O  0 O
i should be done. If I Gi t I max i , then it is still a PI
p p p
Similarly, (0 , Vkp0 ) is chosen as the reference point in the its limit I max
lower part of the P-V curve and then the geometric parameter bus. If IGip  I max
p p
i , then it is switched to PQ bus and Qi is set
E 2 can be calculated as follows: to QGip .
Vkp  Vkp0 Vkp  Vkp0 The injection current of the DGs can be calculated by [16]:
E2 (12)
O  0 O ( PGip )2  (QGip )2
where (O , Vkp ) is the predicted solution.
I Gip (15)
(Vi p )2
E. Bus Type Switching Logic where PG and QG are the specified active and reactive
Large numbers of DGs are electronically interfaced in generation of DGs. The reactive power calculation equation of
AND [16-18]. There are three control types for these inverter- PI bus should be simultaneously solved with power flow
coupled DGs, namely voltage control, power factor control equations (3) and the relevant diagonal element
and current control. The voltage control type DGs are modeled w 'Qip wVi p of Jacobin matrix should be modified.
as PV bus and the power factor control type DGs are modeled
as PQ bus. For the current control DGs, the connected bus can F. Bifurcation Type Identification
be modeled as PI bus where the active power output and the Accurate identification of the bifurcation type is of great
injection current to distribution systems are specified [16]. significance to the voltage stability control of ADN. The limit
However, the injection current limit of PV-type and PQ-type induced bifurcation point (LIBP) would be encountered with
DGs is not considered in previous works [12-15]. The control the integration of DG units in distribution networks. However,
type should be switched to PI-type if the injection current the identification of LIBP is not discussed in [12-15]. A
reaches its limit. A bus type double-switching logic is method for bifurcation type identification is proposed here.
presented to handle this problem. Based on the operation state of DGs, the bifurcation type can
For PV-type DGs, the relationship between the voltage be identified when the solution path of CPF passes through the
magnitude Vi p and the injection current I Gip of phase p at voltage collapse point. If the slopes of the tangents at two
connected bus i must meet (13). points ( x n , O n ) and ( xn1 , O n1 ) satisfy (16), the voltage
(Vi p  Vsetp i )( I max
p
i  I Gi ) t 0
p
(13) collapse point is between the two points.
p
where I max p wO n n wO n 1 n 1
i is the injection current limit of phase p, Vset i is the (x , O ) ˜ (x , O )  0 (16)
wx wx
setting voltage magnitude of phase p. The PV-PI bus type
switching logic is shown as follows. For the integration of PV-type DGs, if (17) is satisfied, the
On one hand, phase p is a PV bus in the previous iteration. critical point could be identified as LIBP.
If IGip ! I max
p
i , then phase p should be switched to PI bus and ­ N PV ( x n , O n )  N PV ( x n 1 , O n 1 ) 1
°
® n 1 n 1
(17)
°̄ N PI ( x , O )  N PI ( x , O ) 1
n n
p
I Gip is set to I max i . On the other hand, phase p is a PI bus in

the previous iteration. If Vi p  Vsetp i , then phase p is still a PI For the integration of PQ-type DGs, if (18) is satisfied, the
critical point could be identified as LIBP.
bus. If Vi ! V
p p
seti , then the comparison between I p
Gi and its
­ n 1
° N PQ ( x , O )  N PQ ( x , O ) 1
n n n 1

i should be done. If I Gi t I max i , then it is still a PI bus.

p p p
limit I max ® n 1 n 1
(18)
°̄ N PI ( x , O )  N PI ( x , O ) 1
n n
If I  I
p
Gi
p
max i , then it is switched to PV bus and Vi p
is set to
V p where N PI ( x, O ) , N PV ( x, O ) and N PQ ( x, O ) are the numbers
set i .

For PQ-type DGs, the relationship between the calculated of PI buses, PV bus and PQ bus respectively at ( x, O ) . If (17)
reactive power Qip and the injection current I Gip of phase p at and (18) are not satisfied, the critical point could be identified
as saddle node bifurcation point (SNBP).
connected bus i must meet (14).
(Qip  QGip )( I max
p
i  I Gi ) t 0
p
(14) IV. PROCESS OF THE PROPOSE METHOD
p
where Q is the specified reactive generation of phase p. The
Gi
The flow chart of the proposed CPF algorithm is given in
PQ-PI bus type switching logic is shown as follows. Fig.2. The bus type switching logic is used and embedded into
On the one hand, phase p is a PQ bus in the previous the iterations of the corrector step.
 4

Start As shown in Fig.4, the tracing direction of the P-V curve

for phase b is clockwise while the P-V curves for phase a and
Calculate the initial point phase c have the anti-clock tracing direction. The reason for
this phenomenon is that phase b reaches the voltage collapse
Corrector start
Specify
f continuation parameter, point firstly and it is considered as the weakest phase due to
step size and load growth direction
Yes
the largest impendence and heaviest loads. The Jacobin matrix
DG installed ? of three-phase system becomes singular because of the
Predictor
redictor computation No PV-PI/PQ-PI singularity of the sub-matrix of phase b, which leads to the
switching logic
Solve augmented power
voltage collapse of the three-phase system.
Calculate geometric
flow
f ow equations
fl It can be drawn from the above analysis that the voltage
parameter collapse would first occurs at the weakest phase of the weak
Update Newton solutions bus and the P-V curve for this phase has the clockwise tracing
Corrector computation direction, while the P-V curves for other phases may have the
Yes anti-clock tracing direction which indicates that the upper part
Converge ? Break
is unstable and the lower part is stable.
No P-V curve
No
completed
c ? B. Operation Limit of DGs and Limit Induced Bifurcation
Yes
The location and parameters of DGs are given in Table ĉ.
End
nd
TABLE ĉ
Fig.2. Flow chart of the algorithm LOCATION AND PARAMETERS OF DGS
No. Type Three-phase parameters/p.u. Location
V. NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS
1 PV P 0.03, U 0.98 , I max 1.2 7
The proposed method is carried out on the IEEE 33-bus P 0.02, Q 0.015 , I max 0.05
2 PQ 16
radial distribution network as shown in Fig.3 while the line P 0.05 , U 1 , I max 0.762
3 PV 23
parameters and loads of network are unbalanced. Four DGs
4 PQ P 0.03, Q 0.025 , I max 0.081 31
are integrated into the system. Suppose the three-phase line
impedances are Zbb ! Zcc ! Zaa , and the three-phase loads are In the first case, DG1 is installed at bus 7. The loads at bus
17 keep increasing. The three-phase P-V curves of bus 17 are
SLb ! SLc ! SLa . shown in Fig.5.
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

Phase a
Phase b
DG3
DG3 DG4
DG4 Phase c
1
Voltage Magnitude(p.u.)

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 0.8

DG1
DG1 DG2
DG2

0.6
18 19 20 21

Fig.3. The 33-bus distribution system with four DG units 0.4

A. P-V Curves of Unbalanced Distribution Systems 0.2

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
Load Growth in Three Phases (MW)
1

Fig.5. Three-phase P-V curves of bus 17 with a PV-type DG

Voltage Magnitude(p.u.)

0.8

Phase a
0.6 Phase b
Phase c
1

0.4
Voltage Magnitude(p.u.)

0.8

0.2
Phase a
Phase b 0.6
Phase c
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8
Load Growth in Three Phases (MW) 0.4

Fig.4. P-V curves of bus 17 in three single-phase systems

0.2

Without any DG integration, the three-phase loads at bus

17 are increased from the base case while maintaining 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

constant power factor. The P-V curves of bus 17 in three- Load Growth in Three Phases (MW)

phase system are shown in Fig.4. Fig.6. Three-phase P-V curves of bus 17 with different DGs

By comparing Fig.4 with Fig.5, the load margin increases
from 1.7153MW to 2.599MW due to the integration of DG.
As the reactive power output of DG grows, the injection
current of phase b at bus 7 violates the limit at the critical
point. The upper part of the curve turns to the lower part of
another curve at this point, which leads to voltage immediate
collapse. According to criterion (17), the voltage collapse
point can be identified as LIBP.
In the second case, DG1aDG4 are integrated into the system
simultaneously and the active power outputs of DG2aDG4 are
controllable and their initial outputs are 50% of the limits. The
loads at bus 17, 24, 32 and active generation of DG2aDG4 are
increased uniformly. The three-phase P-V curves of bus 17 are
shown in Fig.6.
In Table Ċ the DG units violating the injection current
limit as the load grows are given.
TABLE Ċ
INJECTION CURRENT STATE OF DGS
O Load
DG No. and Phase
Increment/MW
0.1323 1.9846 (2, b)
0.3206 4.8086 (2, b)
0.3909 5.8636 (2, b)ǃ(2, c)
(2, b)ǃ(2, c)ǃ(4, b)
0.4355 6.5330
0.4828 7.2416 (1, b)ǃ(2, b)ǃ(2, c)ǃ(4, b)
0.4948 7.4213 (1, b)ǃ(2, b)ǃ(2, c)ǃ(3, b)ǃ(4, b)
The active power outputs of DG1aDG4 reach their limits at
O 0.1 simultaneously. The load margin is 7.4719MW and
the voltage collapse point can be identified as SNBP. As load
increases, the injection current of DG units violates the limit at
different load levels. The bus type double-switching logic
shown in Section III can be utilized to handle this situation.
VI. CONCLUSION
The high penetration of different types of DGs may cause a
voltage stability problem in distribution systems. A
continuation power flow method for voltage stability analysis
of three-phase power systems with DGs is proposed in this
paper. The local geometric parameterization technique is
introduced for avoiding the computation failure of CPF at the
critical point. Research shows that the phase with largest
impedance or heaviest loads is the weakest phase and the
voltage collapse of the unbalanced three-phase system is
caused by the weakest phase. Numerical simulations on IEEE
33-bus distribution system show that the voltage collapse
point can be calculated accurately and the type of bifurcation
can be identified correctly. Therefore, it would be a useful tool
for voltage stability analysis in active distribution network.
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VIII. BIOGRAPHIES
Jinquan Zhao (M’2006) received the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees, all in electrical
engineering, from Shanghai Jiao tong University, Shanghai, China, in 1993
and 2000, respectively. From December 2000 to September 2003, he was a
postdoctoral associate in Cornell University. He was a post-doctoral associate
in Tsinghua University. Currently he is a professor in Electrical Engineering
department, Hohai University, Nanjing, China. His researches include voltage
stability analysis and control, OPF and its applications.
Xiaolong Fan received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from
Shanghai University of Engineering Science, Shanghai, China in 2012.
Currently he is working towards to his M.E. degree in Hohai University,
Nanjing, China. His interest is voltage stability analysis.
Zonghe Gao received the Master’s degree from the State Grid Electric Power
Research Institute, Nanjing, China, in 1989. Currently he is with the State
Grid Electric Power Research Institute of China and his interest is in the area
of power system dispatch and control.