Some improvements in solving radial distributions networks through the backward/forward method

In the electrical radial distribution networks analysis, the backward/forward method shows good features in terms of robustness, independence from load nature, small use of hardware resources and limited calculation time. In the present paper, some procedures to improve the b/f method with the aim of reducing the calculation time are presented. The adopted procedures regard the choice of the initial values of the nodes voltages and the way in which the convergence criterion is applied. The results of some tests carried out on some electrical test systems here reported have shown the efficiency of the proposed methodology in terms of calculation time reduction, especially when solving heavily loaded distribution systems.