AMI/GIS based distribution system load flow for extended situational awareness

Traditional Load Flow methods are considered as one of the most important tools for analyzing the operation of power system and to perform the planning studies. Since distribution systems exhibit characteristics like higher R/X ratio and loading of the feeders is higher, traditional load flow methods fail to analyze these networks and hence separate methods are developed to handle the situation. However, these distribution load flow methods restrict to calculating power flow at feeder level (> 11 kV) by representing load as a suitable model. The load segments i.e. 3-phase 4-wire LV network downstream to the 11kV/400V distribution transformer, is represented as time deterministic static loads while calculating distribution load flow. Due to the increase in demand for more situational awareness until the edge of the network and with large scale deployment of Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) & Geographical Information System (GIS) technologies, it is possible to do load flow analysis on 400V 3-phase, 4-wire LV distribution network in phase-wise manner using smart meters, geographical & communication technologies. In this paper, we propose algorithm for such a load flow method and discuss its applications.