On Extending and Comparing Newton-Raphson Variants for Solving Power-Flow Equations

This paper focuses on power-flow equations solutions, based on the Newton-Raphson method. Two major contributions are offered. First, the definition of novel solution variants, resorting to Wirtinger calculus, is attempted. The obtained developments, although original in their formulation, led to already known variants. Despite the impaired originality of the obtained solution, there are significant lessons learned from such an effort. The second major contribution consists of a deep comparison analysis of existing solution strategies, based on complex and real variables, and the Wirtinger based ones, all properly reformulated to allow direct comparison with each other. The goal is to investigate strengths and weaknesses of the addressed techniques in terms of computational effort and convergence rate, which are the most relevant aspects to consider while choosing the approach to employ to solve power-flow equations for a specific power system under study.