Identifying modeling errors in mine electrical power flow input

Calculation of voltages in a mine electrical distribution system using a power-flow program may fail to yield meaningful results if the iterative power-flow procedure fails to converge. A modified power-flow technique that converges for most of the mine electrical power-flow input data, even though the same input data do not yield a convergent solution with a traditional Newton power-flow algorithm, is presented. When no operable solution to the power-flow problem exists, the results tend to indicate the location of the modeling error that is responsible for nonconvergence. An extensive case study using data for a mine electrical power system is presented to demonstrate the robustness and error identification properties of the power-flow algorithm.<>