EEL 6266 Power System Operation and Control

Chapter 5 Unit Commitment

Load Demand Cycles

Human activity follows cycles
systems supplying services will also experience usage cycles
transportation, communication, and electric power systems

electric power consumption follows a daily, weekly, and seasonal cycles

high power usage during the day and evening hours
industrial and commercial operations and lighting loads

lower usage on the weekends higher usage during the summer and winter
greater temperature extremes

Load cycles create economic problems for power generation

it is quite expensive to continuously run all generation, which is needed to meet the peak power demands
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EEL 6266 Power System Operation and Control

Load Demand Cycles

Definition
commitment means to turn-on a given generation unit
have the prime mover operating the unit at synchronous speed synchronize and connect the unit to the network grid

Economics
savings are gained by decommitting some of the generation units when they are not need to meet the current load demand the engineering problem is committing enough units to meet current and future load demands while minimizing starting and operating costs

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EEL 6266 Power System Operation and Control

Load Demand Cycles

Example
consider the cost for operating three generation units
Unit 1: Unit 2: Unit 3: F1(P1) = 561 + 7.92 P1 + 0.001562 P12 F2(P2) = 310 + 7.85 P2 + 0.00194 P22 F3(P3) = 93.6 + 9.56 P3 + 0.005784 P32 150 P1 600 100 P2 400 50 P3 200

what combination of units is best to supply a 550 MW load?

Unit 1 Unit 2 Unit 3 Ftotal 5418 5389 5497 5471 5617
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Max Gen

Min Gen

P1

P2

P3

F1

F2

Off Off Off Off On On On On

Off Off On On Off Off On On

Off On Off On Off On Off On

0 200 400 600 600 800 1000 1200

0 50 100 150 150 200 250 300

0 550 500 295 267

400 0 0 255 233

150 0 50 0 50

Infeasible Infeasible Infeasible 0 3760 5389 0 4911 0 3030 2440 2787 2244

1658 0 586 0 586

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EEL 6266 Power System Operation and Control

F3

Load Demand Cycles

Example
notes:
the least expensive way to supply the generation is not with all three units running or with any combination involving two units the optimal commitment is to only run unit #1, the most economic unit
by only running the most economic unit, the load can be supplied by that unit operating closer to its best efficiency if another unit is committed, both unit #1 and the other unit will be loaded further from their best efficiency points, resulting in a higher net cost

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EEL 6266 Power System Operation and Control

Load Demand Cycles

Daily load patterns
consider the load demand with a simple peak-valley pattern in order to optimize the operation of the system
units must be shut down as load goes down then the units must be recommitted as load goes back up

simple approach to the solution is a simple priority list scheme

1500 MW Total Loading 1150 MW Peak Load 1000 MW

500 MW 450 MW Min. Load 3 PM 9 PM 3 AM Time of day 9 AM 3 PM

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EEL 6266 Power System Operation and Control

Load Demand Cycles

Example
use a brute force technique to obtain a shut-down rule for the range of loads from 1200 to 500 MW in steps of 50 MW when load is above 1000 MW, run all three units loading between 600 MW and 1000 MW, run units #1 & #2 loading below 600 MW, only run unit #1 Load Unit 1 Unit 2
1200 1500 MW 1150 1100 1050 200 MW Unit #3 1000 1000 MW 950 400 MW Unit #2 900 850 500 MW 600 MW 800 750 Unit #1 700 650 3 PM 9 PM 3 AM 9 AM 3 PM 600 550 Time of day 500
EEL 6266 Power System Operation and Control

Unit 3
on on on on off off off off off off off off off off off

on on on on on on on on on on on on on on on

on on on on on on on on on on on on off off off

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Total Loading

Constraints in Unit Commitment

Primary constraints
enough units are committed to supply the load economically

Spinning reserve constraints

spinning reserve definition
the total amount of on-line, synchronized generation power committed less the current loading and power losses supplied
protects the network from an unexpected loss of one or more generation units

typical spinning reserve rules

the reserve is a given percentage of the forecasted demand must be capable of making up the loss of the most heavily loaded generation unit
reserves must be spread around the system to avoid transmission limitations (bottling) and permit parts of the system to run as islands
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EEL 6266 Power System Operation and Control

Constraints in Unit Commitment

Example
consider a power system consisting of two isolated regions
transmission tie-lines join the regions and may transfer power up to a maximum of 550 MW in either direction five units have been committed to supply 3090 MW of loading
Interchange
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Unit Output

Regional Generation

Regional Load (MW) 1900 1190 3090

Unit Capacity

Spinning Reserve

Region

(MW)

(MW)

(MW)

(MW)

Western region
Units 1, 2 & 3 550 MW maximum

1 Western 2 3 4 5

1000 800 800 1200 600 4400

900 420 420 1040 310 3090 1350 3090 1740

100 380 380 160 290 1310 160 (in) 160 (out)

Eastern region
Units 4 & 5 Eastern Total
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EEL 6266 Power System Operation and Control

(MW)

Unit

Constraints in Unit Commitment

Example
verify the allocation of spinning reserves in the system
western region
generation of largest unit: 900 MW available spinning reserve
local: 760 MW; tie-line capacity: 390 MW; eastern region: 450 MW total: 1150 MW - load can be supplied

eastern region
generation of largest unit: 1040 MW available spinning reserve
local: 450 MW; tie-line capacity: 550 MW; western region: 700 MW total: 1000 MW - load can not be completely supplied

lack 40 MW of spinning reserve in the eastern region

commit 40 MW of new generation within the eastern region
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Constraints in Unit Commitment

Thermal unit constraints
a thermal unit can undergo only gradual temperature changes
results in a time period of several hours to bring a unit on-line minimum up time: it should not be turned off immediately minimum down time: once decommitted, the minimum time before a unit can be recommitted crew constraint: at a multiple unit plant, there is usually only enough personnel to start one unit at at time

a certain amount of energy is expended to bring a unit on-line

to slowly bring up the temperature and pressure this energy does not result in any power delivered from the unit the energy cost is brought into the unit commitment problem as a start-up cost
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Constraints in Unit Commitment

Start-up costs
the start-up cost can vary from a maximum cold-start value to a much smaller warm-start value
warm unit: a recently turned-off unit with latent heat that is near the normal operating temperature

two approaches available to treating a thermal unit during its down time
allow the boiler to cool down and then heat it back up to operating temperature in time for a scheduled turn-on provide enough fuel to supply sufficient energy to the boiler to just maintain the operating temperature

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Constraints in Unit Commitment

Start-up cost comparison
cooling allowing the unit to cool down start-up cost function:
Ccold
Cstart-up cooling banking Cfixed break-even point

t shut down = H cold 1 e F fuel + C fixed

banking input sufficient energy into the boiler to just maintain the operating temperature banking cost function:
Cbank = H bank F fuel tshut down + C fixed

0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 hr

Time-dependent start-up costs

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Unit Commitment Solution Methods

Typical utility situation involving the commitment problem
must establish a loading pattern for M periods have N generation units available to commit and dispatch
the M load levels and operating limits on the N units are such that any one unit can supply the load demand and any combination of units can also supply the loads

Commitment by enumeration
a brute force method
total combinations to investigate: 2N 1 for the total period of M intervals, the maximum number of possible combinations is: (2N 1)M
example: for a 24-hour period made up of 1-hr intervals, a 5 unit network become 6.2 1035 combinations
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Unit Commitment Solution Methods

Priority-List Methods
consist of a simple shut-down rule
obtained by an exhaustive enumeration of all unit combinations at each load level or obtained by noting the full-load average production cost of each unit
the full-load average production cost is the net heat rate at full load multiplied by the fuel cost

various enhancements can be made to the priority-list scheme by the grouping of units to ensure that various constraints are met

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Unit Commitment Solution Methods

Typical shut-down rules
at each hour when load is dropping, determine whether dropping the next unit on the list leaves sufficient generation to supply the load plus the spinning-reserve requirements
if the supply is not sufficient, keep the unit committed

determine the number of hours before the unit is needed again

if the time is less than the minimum shut-down time for the unit, keep it committed

perform a cost comparison

the sum of the hourly production costs for the next number of hours with the next unit to be dropped being committed and the sum of the restart costs for the next unit based on the minimum cost of cooling the unit or banking the unit
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Unit Commitment Solution Methods

Example
construct a priority list for the units in the first example using the same cost equations
Unit 1: Unit 2: Unit 3: F1(P1) = 561 + 7.92 P1 + 0.001562 P12 F2(P2) = 310 + 7.85 P2 + 0.00194 P22 F3(P3) = 93.6 + 9.56 P3 + 0.005784 P32 150 P1 600 100 P2 400 50 P3 200

the full-load average production costs

Unit 1: Unit 2: Unit 3: F1(600) 600 = 9.7922 F2(400) 400 = 9.4010 F3(200) 200 = 11.1848

a strict priority order for these units: [ 2, 1, 3 ]

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Unit Commitment Solution Methods

Example
the commitment scheme
ignoring minimum up/down times and start-up costs
Combination 1+2+3 1+2 2 Min MW 300 250 100 Max MW 1200 1000 400

notes
this scheme does not completely parallel the shut-down sequence described in the first example
there unit 2 was shut down at 600 MW leaving unit 1 here unit 1 is shut down at 400 MW leaving unit 2 why the differences? where is the problem?

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