Novel Hybrid Algorithm for Hydrothermal Generation Scheduling

Abstract

Electric power systems have experienced continuous growth in all three major sectors of the power system, namely, generation, transmission, and distribution. Electricity generation cannot be stored economically, but it involves a dynamic system that needs a balance of its supply and demand for 24 hours. Conventionally, nearly 70-75% of total installed capacity, the power generation systems include both fixed head hydro and fuel-fired thermal units world-wide. Owing to the low operational cost and minimum start-up time, the hydro units facilitate peak load shaving by replacing high fuel cost thermal units. The designed infrastructure of hydroelectric power plants considers the units to be located on the same stream or/and on different streams. On the other hand, the selection of the thermal units as a base, middle or peak one is based on their efficiency, fuel cost and the dynamic response. The efficient scheduling of available energy resources for satisfying load demand has become an important task in the modern power system. The generation scheduling problem aims at determining the optimal operation strategy for the next scheduling interval subject to a variety of constraints. For a short-term hydrothermal generation, planning period is an hour or a day or half or a week as the load demand on the power system exhibits cyclic variations. Short-term hydrothermal scheduling is an important planning task in power system operation with two aspects; a day-ahead scheduling for short-term profitable market contracts and hourly scheduling for power balance requirements, hence it is the subject of intensive investigation.