Minimal Path Technique for Congestion Management in Electrical Market

Abstract

Restructuring of electric power system was mainly introduced in order to create a competition through an electricity market, in such a way to dispatch generators with the lowest bidding prices. However, limitations on the power carrying capability of transmission lines created the problem of congestion. This paper presents a developed technique based on the minimal path concept for managing the congestion problem. The main achievement of this technique, in comparison with other developed methods, is that it does not have to evaluate the contribution of each generator (i.e. distribution factors) in the power flow through each line in the given system, which results in the formulation of a large number of equations to be solved. Instead, it identifies the generators connected to the receiving and sending ends of the congested line, classify these generators into three types (increasing, decreasing and critical) and according to this classification their outputs are decreased and/or increased by specified increments until congestion is solved. Hence, one does not need to formulate equations and then solve it.