Performance Evaluation of Islanded Microgrid Using Load Flow Analysis Technique

Load flow (LF) analysis is an inextricable part of an in-depth study on microgrid. In this study, AC load flow method was used in MATLAB environment to evaluate the performance of an islanded microgrid. The future directions had also been outlined from the analysis results to improve the overall performance of the microgrid. Simulation case study was conducted on an isolated electrical network of Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) which consists of 27 buses. To achieve the goal, voltage magnitude and phase angle at each bus bar, total power flow (both active and reactive) in branches, and power losses in microgrid were computed from load flow analysis. The comparison and analysis of load flow results revealed that this simulation approximately depict the precise situation of the real time system as found in the UTP microgrid. Every component of UTP microgrid network tested to determine whether it is under or over loaded. These results indicated that all elements are within TNBs specifications. After the full load simulation, the impact of several parameters upon the performance was demonstrated, and alternatives were suggested to improve the performance.