next up previous
Next: The Gauss-Seidel Method Up: A Parallel Gauss-Seidel Algorithm Previous: Introduction

Power System Applications

The underlying motivation for our research is to improve the performance of electrical power system applications to provide real-time power system control and real-time support for proactive decision making. Our research has focused on matrices from load-flow applications [15]. Load-flow analysis examines steady-state equations based on the positive definite network admittance matrix that represents the power system distribution network, and is used for identifying potential network problems in contingency analyses, for examining steady-state operations in network planning and optimization, and for determining initial system state in transient stability calculations [15]. Load flow analysis entails the solution of non-linear systems of simultaneous equations, which are performed by repeatedly solving sparse linear equations. Sparse linear solvers account for the majority of floating point operations encountered in load-flow analysis. Load flow is calculated using network admittance matrices, which are symmetric positive definite and have sparsity defined by the power system distribution network. Individual power utility companies often examine networks in their operations centers that are represented by less than 2,000 sparse complex equations, while regional power authority operations centers would examine load-flow with matrices that have as many as 10,000 sparse complex equations. This paper presents data for power system networks of 1,723, 4,180, and 5,300 nodes.



David P. Koester
Sun Oct 22 15:29:26 EDT 1995