Superposition Theorem for Flexible Grids

Flexible grid topology has become a key enabler of flexibility in modern power grids, particularly for congestion management. Studying the effects of combinatorial topological changes is therefore of significant interest, though this remains computationally intensive in most cases. To address this, we revisit the superposition theorem, which has served as the foundation for the decomposition of numerous power system problems over the past decades, particularly those involving changes in generation and loads. However, its application has traditionally been restricted to fixed grid topologies, breaking down as soon as a topological change occurs. In this paper, we extend the superposition theorem to accommodate varying grid topologies by leveraging well-known distribution factors. This unified framework applies to all types of topological changes, including line disconnection and reconnection, as well as bus splitting and merging. We provide numerical experiments to validate our approach and highlight its advantages in terms of speed-up and interpretability. Finally, we demonstrate its application in two key use cases: remedial action search and updated security analysis following a topological change. Our results show more than an order-of-magnitude speed-up for real-sized grids compared to the fastest power flow solvers.