A Virtual Tool for Load Flow Analysis in a Micro-Grid

Abstract

This paper proposes a virtual tool for load flow analysis in energy distribution systems of micro-grids. The solution is based on a low-cost measurement architecture, which entails low-voltage power measurements in each secondary substation and a voltage measurement at the beginning of the medium voltage (MV) feeder. The proposed virtual tool periodically queries these instruments to acquire the measurements. Then, it implements a backward–forward load flow algorithm, to evaluate the power flow in each branch and the voltage at each node. The virtual tool performances are validated using power measurements acquired at the beginning of each MV feeder. The uncertainties on each calculated quantity are also evaluated starting from the uncertainties due to the used measurement instruments. Moreover, the influence of the line parameter uncertainties on the evaluated quantities is also considered. The validated tool is useful for the online analysis of power flows and also for planning purposes, as it allows verifying the influence of future distributed generator power injection. In fact, the tool is able to off-line perform the load flow calculation in differently distributed generation scenarios. The micro-grid of Favignana Island was used as a case study to test the developed virtual tool.

Keywords

• smart grid
• power system
• distributed generation
• micro-grid
• load flow
• measurement uncertainties