Economic dispatch of thermal units

Abstract

The economic dispatch of thermal units was one of the first mathematical programming applications to power systems operation. This chapter helps the student to formulate the problems of economic and environmental dispatch. Transmission lines impose restrictions on the economic/environmental dispatch that must be considered in the model. These constraints can be represented by three different models, namely: transportation model, linear power flow (DC-model), and non-linear power flow equations (or AC-model). The chapter includes constraints related to the active power loss. Losses can be included in the economic dispatch model by a simple quadratic equation and a power flow calculation. It also includes constraints related to the transmission lines' capacity considering the transportation model or the linear power flow.