Vector shift (VS) is one of the typical methods used for islanding detection in distributed generations. This paper investigates the impact of both the active power imbalance and load variation on VS method. The investigation was conducted via simulation test in the power system dynamic simulation laboratory of Shandong University. The results show that it will take longer time for the VS relay to detect islanding state with the decrease of active power imbalance. In some cases, the vector shift angle is smaller than the setting and VS method would not be able to detect islanding state. In addition, the performance of VS method is impacted by the load variation in normal operation in which the distributed generator is operated in parallel with the main grid. The simulation results show that VS method would cause nuisance tripping if the load changes sharply. It can be summarized that VS method would be unable to reliably discriminate islanding state and normal system disturbances in some cases.