Simulator 16 User Guide - PowerWorld

Shortest Path Between Elements
To access the Shortest Path Between Elements go to the Tools ribbon tab, and choose Connections
> Determine Shortest Path Between... from the Other Tools ribbon group. The Determine
Shortest Path Between dialog provides a way to find the shortest electrical pathway between two parts
of the power system.
After clicking the Calculate button, the shortest path of AC branches will be determined with the first
bus being inside the Start Element and the last bus being inside the End Element. Options described
below allow the user to choose the Start Element, End Element, Distance Measure for each branch,
and branches that are allowed to be traversed. The results will be displayed in a case information
display at the bottom of the dialog showing the sequence of buses that are traversed between the
start and end elements.
The options on the dialog are described below.
Start Element Type and Element
Choose an element type to be either a Bus, Substation, Area, Zone, Super Area or Injection Group.
Then use the object chooser to choose the particular object to be the starting element. For more
help on the object choose see the Find Dialog Basics.
End Element Type and Element
Choose an element type to be either a Bus, Substation, Area, Zone, Super Area or Injection Group.
Then use the object chooser to choose the particular object to be the ending element. For more help
on the object choose see the Find Dialog Basics.
Distance Measure
Choose the distance measure that will be used to determine distances between nodes. Each branch
will be treated as having a length based on the choice below. Note: negative values are not allowed,
therefore negative values will be treated as extremely small lengths instead.
X - Per unit series reactance.
|Z| - Magnitude of the series impedance (based on the per unit reactance and resistance).
Length - Length field for each branch.
Number of Nodes - Length of 1.0 is used for all branches.
Other - When choosing Other, click the Find.. button to choose any numeric field of a branch.
Lines to Process
Regardless of the Distance Measure above, you can choose which branches are allowed to be
traversed when finding the shortest path.
All - All branches are allowed to be traversed.
Only Closed - Only branches that are presently closed can be traversed.
Filter - Only branches that meet the advanced filter specified can be traversed. Click Define...
to choose or create and advanced filter.
Selected - Only branches whose Selected? field is set to YES can be traversed.
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