EEC 670/770: Power Systems Operations, Fall 2016

Homework Week 3
Due 09/28/2016 (before class)
Problem 1: There are two units in a system to supply the load. Their quadratic cost functions are
given as follows,
Unit 1: Fc,1 = 350 +10P1 + 0.005P12 $/h, Pmin,1 = 200 MW, Pmax,1 = 400 MW
Unit 2: Fc,2 =180 + 9.5P2 + 0.001P22 $/h, Pmin,2 =100 MW, Pmax,2 = 300 MW
Assume that the system load is 620 MW. Set 50 MW as the interval between two breakpoints on
the cost curves. Determine the optimal dispatches to supply the load using
(1) Incremental cost ranking method;
(2) Linear programming method.
(3) What is the system (the system incremental cost) and what are the min and max of the two
units at the optimal dispatch?
Problem 2: There are three units in a system to supply the load. Parameters for the three units
are listed in Table 1. The fuel consumption functions of the three units are piecewise linear, as
listed in Table 2, where the unit of P is MW and the unit of H is MBtu/h. System loads and unit
statuses are listed in Table 3. Unit 3 has a take-or-pay fuel contract. Unit 3 has to pay a cost of
$30,000 to burn up to 200 tons of fuel. Beyond the 200 tons, the fuel price is $120/ton. The heat
value of the fuel for Unit 3 is 23 MBtu/ton. In addition, the system has a total CO 2 emission
allowance of 1850 tons (1 ton = 2000 lbs) for the operation over the four-hour horizon. Use
linear programming to solve the economic dispatch considering the fuel contract constraint of
Unit 3 and the system CO2 emission allowance.
Table 1. Unit parameters
Pmin Pmax Fuel price CO2 Emission Coefficient
Unit (MW) (MW) ($/MBtu)
(lb/MBtu)
1
50
200
8.0
120
2 100 600
4.0
200
3 100 400 see Table 4
250
Table 2. Piecewise linear fuel consumption curve
Unit P1
H1 P2 H2 P3
H3
P4 H4
1
50 485 100 950 150 1425 200 1910
2
100 660 300 2260 500 4260 600 5410
3
100 845 200 1720 300 2645 400 3620
Table 3. System loads and unit statuses
Hour Load (MW) Unit 1 Unit 2 Unit 3
1
300
0
0
1
2
600
0
1
1
3
800
1
1
1
4
400
0
1
1

EEC 670/770: Power Systems Operations, Fall 2016

Table 4. Fuel contract for Unit 3

Contract
Cost ($)
Fuel Price ($/ton)
Take or pay
$30,000 up to 200 tons
Beyond the take or pay
120
Problem 3 (optional): The quadratic cost function and minimum/maximum generation
capacities of Unit 1 are given as follows:
2
Unit 1: Fc,1 350 10P1 0.05P1 $/h, Pmin,1 200 MW , Pmax,1 400 MW
An equal partition method would have a MW step of 40MW for Unit 1 if six points are allowed.
Apply the method introduced in Reference [Lei Wu, A Tighter Piecewise Linear
Approximation of Quadratic Cost Curves for Unit Commitment Problems, IEEE Transactions
on Power Systems, Vol. 26, No. 4, pp. 2581-2583, Nov. 2011] to find a more accurate piecewise
linear cost function for Unit 1 if six points are allowed. Compare the difference between the
objective functions (Equation (8) in the Reference) of the two methods.