A distributed load flow application for multipartite grid operators’coordination

To meet future decarbonisation goals, higher amounts of renewable energy generation needs to be integrated in the power system. Consequently, power system operation is becoming more complex. In this context, the need to automate grid operations is fundamental in order to ensure adequate levels of reliability, flexibility and efficiency. Currently, load flow computation is the key tool for grid operators to undertake power system analysis. However, at the interfaces between neighbouring networks operated by different grid operators usually empirical methods are used that do not ensure optimality allocation. This paper proposes a distributed approach to the load flow problem on joint networks managed by two parties. The procedure exploits the Newton-Krylov-Schwarz procedure to minimize the amount of information shared between neighbouring parties to obtain convergence on interfacing variables. Two frameworks of application of the provided tool are DSO-TSO coupled powerflow simulation and cross border capacity calculation.