Phase-decoupled load flow method for radial and weakly-meshed distribution networks

A phase-decoupled load flow method is proposed. The method is tailored for distribution networks with radial or weakly-meshed structures. The branch-current-based Newton–Raphson method is employed. The Jacobian matrix of the proposed method could be decoupled into three sub-Jacobian matrices, one for each phase, and is used to execute load flow. The proposed method is insensitive to the line parameters and is significantly faster than other methods developed so far in solving the radial or weakly looped distribution networks. Tests have shown that the proposed method has a great potential for online operations and provides a very good theoretical foundation for developing more applications and research in this area.