A robust, nondivergent power flow method has been developed using the particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique. The decoupling properties between the power system quantities have been exploited in developing the power flow algorithm. The speed of the power flow algorithm has been improved using a simple perturbation technique. The basic power flow algorithm and the improvement scheme have been designed to retain the simplicity of the evolutionary approach. The power flow is rugged, can determine the critical loading conditions and also can handle the flexible alternating current transmission system (FACTS) devices efficiently. Test results on standard test systems show that the proposed method can find the solution when the standard power flows fail. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.