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:

150 P1 600
100 P2 400
50 P3 200

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

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400
0
0
255
233

150
0
50
0
50

EEL 6266 Power System Operation and Control

Ftotal

0
550
500
295
267

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

F3

0
50
100
150
150
200
250
300

F2

Min
Gen

0
200
400
600
600
800
1000
1200

F1

Max
Gen

Off
On
Off
On
Off
On
Off
On

P3

Unit 3

Off
Off
On
On
Off
Off
On
On

P2

Unit 2

Off
Off
Off
Off
On
On
On
On

P1

Unit 1

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

1658
0
586
0
586

5418
5389
5497
5471
5617

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

Total Loading

1500 MW
1150 MW Peak Load
1000 MW

500 MW
450 MW Min. Load
3 PM

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9 PM

3 AM
Time of day

9 AM

EEL 6266 Power System Operation and Control

3 PM

Load Demand Cycles

Example

Total Loading

 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

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EEL 6266 Power System Operation and Control

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

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

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

Eastern region
Units 4 & 5

Eastern
Total

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900

800

420

800

420

1200

1040

600

310

4400

3090

EEL 6266 Power System Operation and Control

1900

160
(in)

(MW)

(MW)

Spinning
Reserve

(MW)

Regional
Generation

(MW)

(MW)

1000

Interchange

Western

Regional
Load (MW)

550 MW
maximum

Unit Output

Units 1, 2 & 3

Unit
Capacity

Western region

Unit

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
Region

100
1740

380
380

1350
3090

160
290
1310

160
(out)

1190
3090
9

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

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

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banking

break-even
point

Cfixed

0
0

7 hr

Time-dependent start-up costs

EEL 6266 Power System Operation and Control

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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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EEL 6266 Power System Operation and Control

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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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18