Software tool for power transfer distribution factors (PTDF) computing within the power systems

With the restructuring of the electric power system, the role of transmission companies is to provide reliable electric service to customers. The ability of a transmission system to serve loads is an important factor that weighs heavily on the reliability of the system. Uncertainties in the system are important in considering the system reliability. The uncertainty in the demand or load stems from the fact that the load is a constantly varying parameter that is largely uncertain. This paper is presenting a software tool developed in Matlab environment. The software is designed for power transfer distribution factors (PTDF) computing within a complex power system, when a specific transaction is taken into consideration. PTDFs are used to show how a particular transaction will affect the system. The algorithm of the software is based on the methodology developed by the authors for PTFDs computing. Using the PTDFs, the change in flow on each transmission line in the system may be calculated for the load change at certain buses. The power system based on the West and South-West side of the National Romanian power system is used as a study case.