An object oriented approach to load flow in distribution systems

The peculiar characteristics of distribution systems require the development of specific load flow models and solving techniques. The aim of the studies presented in literature is usually to enhance computational efficiency and convergence characteristics of the algorithms. Yet, thanks to the increase of the capacity of modern computing environments, new approaches can be adopted that give preference to flexibility, extensibility and maintainability of the software rather than to computational efficiency. In the paper, the object-oriented paradigm is applied to distribution load flow. The electrical system modeling is structured in a hierarchy of classes; for each class, data and methods are defined to implement local processing of a Newton-Raphson distribution load flow algorithm decomposed into modules; information hiding guarantees modularity and flexibility. The features of a software tool implemented in an open software CAD environment are presented. Numerical applications to a test system evidence the convergence characteristics of the algorithm