Participation Factor Studies for Distributed Slack Bus Models in Three-Phase Distribution Power Flow Analysis

With the increase of distributed generators (DGs) installed within power networks, new analysis tools for planning and operating are required to develop for distribution systems with multiple sources. Power flow with a distributed slack bus model is considered more realistic than a single slack bus model, since there is no slack bus in real power systems. Participation factors can be applied to assign slack for distributed slack bus models. Previous works about participation factors for distributed slack bus models focused on transmission systems. Due to special characteristics of distribution systems, such as high R/X ratios and network imbalance, these previous works cannot be applied directly. This paper presents a three-phase distribution power flow with a distributed slack bus model and studies of two different methods to calculate participation factors. The methods are based on network sensitivity factors and on the concepts of generator domains