Power Flow Analysis

Therefore it is important that voltages and power flows in an electrical system can be determined for a given set of loading and operating conditions. This is known as the power flow problem. Power flow analysis is used extensively in the planning, design and operation of electrical systems. In power flow analysis, it is normal to assume that the system is balanced and that the network is composed of constant, linear, lumped-parameter branches. (In the most basic form of the power flow, transformer taps are assumed to be fixed. This assumption is relaxed in commercial power flows though.) Therefore nodal analysis is generally used to describe the network. However, because the injection/demand at busbars is generally specified in terms of real and reactive power, the overall problem is nonlinear. Accordingly, the power flow problem is a set of simultaneous nonlinear algebraic equations. Numerical techniques are required to solve this set of equations.