A method for transferring power between medium voltage feeders via a direct current link in a power distribution network includes setting an iteration step value for each of a set of power reference quantities of the link, setting an initial value of each reference quantity, iteratively changing values of each reference quantity, and selecting one changed value of the set by: changing a present value of each reference quantity with the set iteration step value into a new value, measuring a total active power at a substation of the power distribution network for each new value, and selecting the new value that provides the lowest measured total active power at the substation. A next iteration is performed with the selected new value as present value for the one of the set of power reference quantities and with the present value for the other of the set of power reference quantities.