A Comparative Study on Power Flow Methods Applied to AC Distribution Networks with Single-Phase Representation

This paper presents a comparative analysis of six different iterative power flow methods applied to AC distribution networks, which have been recently reported in the scientific literature. These are (i) successive approximations, (ii) matricial backward/forward method, (iii) triangular-based approach, (iv) product linearization (v) hyperbolic and (vi) diagonal approximation method. The first three last one formulated without recurring derivatives, they can be directly complex domain; fourth fifth based on linear balance equations that also domain. numerical comparison involves main aspects: convergence rate, processing time, number iterations calculated using classical Newton–Raphson method as reference case. Numerical results from two test feeders composed 34 85 nodes demonstrate derivative-free convergence, use derivatives their formulation quadratic convergence.