Fast harmonic power flow calculation using parallel processing

The paper presents a novel approach to the study of power system harmonics, in which advantage is taken of the fact that the coupling between harmonics of different orders is negligible. Parallel processing techniques are adopted for the first time to solve this problem and it is shown that considerable savings in computing timings can be achieved. The results of simulations performed with the program are compared with measurements on a real system to validate the approach. The system is modelled using phase coordinates and frequency dependence of the parameters and this allows the program to deal with difficult problems such as the unbalanced flow of harmonic currents, electromagnetic coupling between phase quantities etc. The solution process utilises sparse techniques applied to 3×3 blocks which ensures better numerical stability