Economic operation of Power System

Syllabus: No. of hours: 05

Economic distribution of load between generating units within a plant.
Economic distribution of load between power stations, transmission loss equation.
Introduction to unit commitment and dynamic programming.

Text Book : J. Nagrath and D.P. Kothari: Power System Engineering 2/e, MGH.

Wednsday 13, August 2014 Lecture No. 03

Economic distribution of load between generating units within a plant:

Economic distribution also called economic load dispatch is supplying power from only the most
efficient plant at light loads. As load increased power would be supplied by the most efficient plant until
the point of maximum efficiency of plant was reached. For further increase in load the next most
efficient unit plant start to feed power to the system.
To determine the economic distribution of load between the various generating units( consisting
of a turbine , generator, and steam supply) within the plant the operating cost expressed in terms of output
power.
A station with k generating units committed(able to supply load ) and the active power load P
D
is
known then the real power generation P
Gi
for each generating unit has to be allocated so as to minimize
the total cost.
C=

i
(P
Gi
) (Rs./h)
Subject to the inequality constraint
P
Gi min
P
Gi
P
Gi max
(1.1)

Where P
Gi min
and P
Gi max
are the lower and upper real power generation limits of the i
th
generating units.

Also summation of generated real power of all generating units would be greater than active power
demand or load

Gi
P
D (1.2)


Assumed that the cost C is dependent on the real power generation P
Gi
and is insensitive to reactive
power generation Q
Gi
and the inequality constraint is not effective , so

Gi
=P
D (1.3)
then the economic load dispatch problem can be solved by the method of lagrange multipliers ,
it is used for minimizing(or maximizing) a function with conditions in the form of equality constraints.
Using this method,
we define an augmented cost function(Langrangian) as

= C (

Gi
-P
D
) (1.4)
where is the lanrangian multiplier.

Minimization is achieved by the condition

=0 (1.5)
Or dC
i
/dP
Gi
= , i=1,2,3,..,k
Where dC
i
/dP
Gi
is the incremental cost of the i
th
generator

dC
1
/dP
G1
= dC
2
/dP
G2
= dC
3
/dP
G3
=.= dC
k
/dP
Gk
= (1.6)

i.e. the optimal loading of generators corresponds to the equal incremental cost of all generating units.

The equation (1.6) is called the coordination equation

For number of generating units k is solved with the load demand to get the solution for the langrangian
multiplier and the optimal generation of k generators.

The incremental cost curve may not be linear and the can be determined by the iterative process.


Fig. 1 Incremental cost curves




Thursday 14,2014 Leture No. 04

Numerical Problem 2: Incremental fuel costs in Rs. Per MWh for a plant consisting of two units are:
dC
1
/dP
G1
=0.20 P
G1
+40
dC
2
/dP
G2
=0.40 P
G2
+30
and the generator limits are as follows:
30MWP
G1
175 MW
20 MWP
G2
125 MW
Assume that both units are operating at all times . How will the load be shared between the two units as
the system load varies over the full range of the load values? What are the corresponding values of the
plant incremental costs?

Solution :
Given incremental fuel costs for each generating units
dC
1
/dP
G1
=0.20 P
G1
+40
dC
2
/dP
G2
=0.40 P
G2
+30
first we have to determine incremental fuel costs values over the generator limits for each units
for I
st
unit incremental fuel costs values
for P
G1min
=30 MW corresponding incremental cost value
min
=0.20 30+40=46 Rs./MWh
for P
G1max
= 175 MW corresponding incremental cost value
max
=0.20 175+40=75 Rs./MWh
for 2
nd
generating

unit incremental fuel costs values
for P
G2min
=20 MW corresponding incremental cost value
min
=0.40 20+30=38 Rs./MWh
for P
G1max
= 125 MW corresponding incremental cost value
max
=0.40 125+30=80 Rs./MWh

now plot the incremental cost curves for each units


Fig. 2 Incremental cost curves

Now from fig. we have to configure according to values of incremental fuel costs
Limiting values of incremental fuels costs are , 38,46 ,75,80

Now we have to find load range according to incremental fuel costs
For 38 46

1

2
(min) , and therefore as the plant load increases beyond 50 MW, the load increments are placed on
unit 2 till both units have = 46 (P
D
= 30+40=70 MW)

=0.40 P
G2
+30= 0.40(P
D
30) +30 = 0.40 P
D
+18(Rs./MWh)

The corresponding load range is

50 P 70 MW

For 46 75
Load sharing beyond > 46, is carried out on equal basis till unit 1 is reaches its upper limit of 175
MW

=0.20 P
G1
+40 , =0.40 P
G2
+30, P
D
= P
G1
+P
G2


=(1/3)(0.40 P
D
+110) (Rs./MWh)
The corresponding load range is

70 P 287.5 MW

For 75 80
Load sharing beyond > 75,
1

2
(max) and further load increments are carried by unit 2 till it reaches
its upper limit of 125 MW( P
D
= 175+125 =300 MW).

=0.40 P
G2
+30= 0.40(P
D
175) +30 = 0.40 P
D
-40(Rs./MWh)
The corresponding load range is

287.5 P 300 MW














Wednsday August 20,2014 Lecture no. 05

Economic distribution of load between power stations:
In determining the economic distribution of load between plants , we need to consider losses of
transmission lines.
Transmission losses has very much importance because the incremental fuel cost at one
plant bus may be lower than that of another plant for a given distribution of load between plants
but the plant with the lower incremental cost may be much farther from the load center .
Due to this the losses in transmission from plant with lower incremental cost may be
greater and for economic distribution of load we need to lowering the load at the plant with the
lower incremental fuel cost and increasing load at the plant with higher incremental cost .
Thus , we need to coordinate transmission loss into the scheduling of the output of each
plant for maximum economy at a given level of system load.
Now we determine how the load should be shared among various plants, when line losses
are accounted for. The objective is to minimize the overall cost of generation.

C=

i
(P
Gi
) (Rs./h)
At any time under equality constraint of meeting the load demand with transmission
losses

Gi
-

D
P
L
=0 or

Gi
-P
D
P
L
=0 (1.7)

Where m= total number of generating plants,
n= total number of buses
P
Gi
= generation of i
th
plant

P
D
=

D=
sum of load demand at all buses (system load demand)
P
L
= total system transmission loss.

To solve load dispatch problem , again we write langrangian multiplier cost function as

= C (

Gi
-P
D
-P
L
) (Rs./h) (1.8)

The system transmission loss P
L
is a function of power output (active power generation ) for a
given load demand P
Di
at each plant.

To solve economic load dispatch problem or optimal real power dispatch differentiating,

= dC
i
/dP
Gi
- (1
L
/
Gi
)=0 (1.9)

Now rearranging eq. (1.9)

dC
i
/dP
Gi
= (1
L
/
Gi
)
or
=

or (IC)
i
L
i
= , i= 1,2,3,,m (1.10)
Where L
i
=1 /(1
L
/
Gi
) is called the penalty factor of the i
th
plant.

Hence ,Minimum fuel cost is obtained , when the incremental fuel cost multiplied by its
penalty factor is the same for all plants.

The partial derivative
L
/
Gi
is referred as as the incremental transmission loss (ITL),
associated with the i
th
generating plant.
The equation (1.10 ) can be written as (IC)
i
L
i
= , i= 1,2,3,,m
(IC)
i
= [ ]; i=1,2,3,.., m (1.11)
The equation (1.11) is referred as the exact coordination equation.
Representation of Transmission Loss by B-coefficients
This is a simple methods to expressing the transmission loss as a function of generator powers is
through B-coefficients. Under normal condition the transmission loss is quadratic in the injected
real powers.
The general form of the loss formula using B-coefficients is

P
L
=

Where P
i
, P
j
= real power injection at i
th
, j
th
buses,
B
ij
= loss coefficients which are constants under certain assumed operating conditions,
m = number of generating buses.
Thursday 21, August 2014 Lecture No.06
Derivation of Transmission loss equation


Fig. 3 Schematic diagram showing two plants connected through a power network to a
number of loads.
Fig. 3 shows two generating plants connected to an arbitrary number of loads through a
transmission network. One line within the network is assigned as branch p.
Imagine that the total load current I
D
is supplied by plant 1 only, as in fig. 3(a).
Let the current in line p be I
p1.

M
p1
=

(1.12)
Similarly , with plant 2 alone supplying the total current
M
p2
=

(1.13)
M
p1
, M
p2
are called current distribution factors. The values of current distribution factors depend
upon the impedances of the lines and their interconnection, and independent of the current I
D
.
When both generators 1 and 2 are supplying current into the network as in fig. 3(c) , applying the
principle of superposition the current in the line p can be expressed as
I
p
=M
p
I
1
+M
p
I
2
(1.14)
Where I
1
and I
2
are the currents injected at plants 1 and 2 , respectively.

Now, let us make certain assumptions outlined below:
(1) All load currents have the same phase angle with respect to a common reference.
It can be written as |

= |

Where

is the phase angle of the bus voltage and

is the lagging phase angle of the load . Since

and

are vary only through a narrow range at various buses , hence we can assume that

is the
same for all load currents at all times.
(2) Ratio X/R is the same for all network branches.
These two assumptions concludes that I
P1
and I
D
have the same phase angle and so have I
P
and I
D

Hence current distribution factors M
P 1
and M
P 2
are real .
Let |

and |

and

are phase angles of

and

respectively
From equ. (1.14), we can write
|

|
2
= (M
p1
|

|cos

+ M
p2
|

|cos

)
2
+ (M
p1
|

|sin

+ M
p2
|

|sin

)
2
(1.15)
Simplifying the above equation, we get
|

|
2
= M
p1
2
|

|
2
+ M
p2
2
|

|
2
+ 2M
p1
|

| M
p2
|

|cos (

)
Now
|

|=

; |

|=

; (1.16)
Where P
1
and P
2
are the three phase real power injected at plants 1 and 2 at power factors of

and

, and V
1
and V
2
are the bus voltages at the plants.
If R
p
is the resistance of branch p, the total transmission loss is given by
P
L
= |

2
R
p

Substituting for |

|
2
from eq.(1.15) and |

| and |

| from equation (1.16) we obtain

P
L
=

||

(1.16)
The above equation can be recognized as
P
L
= P
1
2
B
11
+2P
1
P
2
B
12
+P
2
2
B
22
Where
B
11
=

B
12
=

||

B
22
=

The terms B
11,
B
12

and B
22
are called loss coefficients or B-coefficients.
The generalized equation for transmission loss equation of k plants is
P
L
=

Where

B
mn
=

||

Friday 27 August, 2014 Lecture No. 08
Introduction to unit commitment :
Unit commitment is the most important in scheduling of electrical power generation. It is not
economical to run all the units available all the time. To determine the units of a plant that should
operate for a particular load demand is the problem of unit commitment (UC).
This approach is important for thermal plants as for other types of plants such as hydro,
the operating cost and start-up times are negligible so that their on-off status is not important.
A simple approach to the problem is to impose priority ordering; in this the most efficient
unit is loaded first to be followed by the less efficient units in order as the load increases this
approach also called sub optimal approach.
Dynamic Programming Method:
A highly time consuming way to finding the most economical combination of units to
meet a particular load demand ,is (1) to try all possible combinations of units that can supply
this load (2) To divide the load optimally between units of each combination by the use of the
coordination equations to find the most economical operating cost of the combination
To determine the combination which has the least operating cost among all these units
considerable time saving can be achieved by using a dynamic programming method for
comparing the generation cost of combinations.
If the load is assumed to increase in small but finite size steps, dynamic programming can
be used for computing unit commitment table and not necessary to solve the coordination
equations,
Steps to solve the problem of UCT by Dynamic Programming method
(1) Starting arbitrarily with any two units, the most economical combination is
determined for all the load levels of the combined output of the two units.
(2) At each load level the most economic power generation may be to run either unit or
both units with certain load sharing between the two.
(3) The most economical cost curve in discrete form for the two units thus obtained as
single equivalent cost curve.
(4) The third unit is now added and the procedure repeated to find the cost curve of the
three combined units. In this procedure the operating combinations of third and first ,
also third and second are not required to be worked out. This process is repeated till
all available units are exhausted.
Let a cost function F
N
(x)= the minimum cost in Rs./hr of generating x MW by N units,
f
N
(y) =cost of generating y MW by the N
th
unit
F
N-1
(x-y)= the minimum cost in Rs./hr of generating (x-y) MW by (N-1) units,
The Dynamic programming method gives the following result
F
N
(x)=

{ f
N
(y)+ F
N-1
(x-y)}
using dynamic programming method we can determine the combination of units , yielding
minimum operating costs for load ranging in convenient steps from minimum permissible load
of the smallest unit to the sum of the capacities of all available units.