When an isolated synchronous grid is initialized in steady state, the reference angle remains undefined. In order to make the angles well defined, this ReferenceBus component should be used in the position where the power flow problem has the slack node.
The purpose of this component when the grid is initialized in steady state is twofold:
UStart and phase
UPhaseStartPSlack and reactive
power QSlack that allow to balance the power flows at
the nominal value of frequency. These two values correspond to the
active and reactive power flows into the slack node of the power
flow model. PSlack and QSlack then remain
constant throughout the simulation. If the power flow is correcty
balanced, those two values are nearly zero, so the Reference Bus is
not absorbing any significant active or reactive power during the
simulation.setPhaseOnly is set to true, then only the initial
phase of the bus voltage is set to the same value of the power
flow, i.e., UPhaseStart. The initial voltage magnitude
is computed to ensure zero reactive power flow QSlack.