Load flow methods in distribution systems with dispersed generations: A brief review

The increase in penetration of generations and addition of voltage regulators in the distribution side lead to various challenges in load flow calculations. The complexity increases because of incorporating these models in the existing distribution load flow algorithms. In certain situations interconnections are made in radial distribution system such that the network becomes weakly meshed for increasing reliability. If the distribution is unbalanced, these power flow algorithms need to consider all the three phases of the network. This paper presents a brief review of distribution load flow under the following categories. 1) Radial and Weakly Meshed Systems 2) Unbalanced and composite loads 3) Dispersed generation 4) Voltage Regulators.