Economic Operation of Power generating Units

Taught by-
Sunita Halder nee Dey
Professor
Electrical Engg. Department
Jadavpur University
 Economic operation of power generating units
1. Economic Load Dispatch
2. Unit commitment

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1. Economic Load Dispatch/Schedule: Economic distribution of load among
the energy generating units
2. Unit commitment: Economic selection of energy generating units to cater a
load.

Cost of power generation:

1. Installation cost
2. Running cost
a) Fixed cost: capital investment, interest charged on the money borrowed,
tax paid, labour charge, salary given to staff and any other expenses that
continue irrespective of the load on the power system
b) Variable cost: is a a function of loading on generating units, losses, daily
load requirement and purchase or sale of power.

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 Economic distribution load among the thermal generator of a thermal power
plant mainly depends on

Running cost
a) Fuel cost: Cost of fuel to generate a particular amount of power
b) Other fixed costs: is a function of interest charged on the money
borrowed, tax paid, labour charge, salary given to staff etc.

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 Cost function of a thermal power generating unit
Let Ci is the cost function of the i-th generating unit while the electrical
output of the unit is Pi

Then we may write, Ci  Ci1  Ci 2  Ci 3

Ci1  Fixed part of the running cost   i (say)

Ci 2  Fuel cost  Pi  i Pi  say 

Ci 3  Cost due to line loss  Pi   i Pi (say)

2 2

 Ci   i Pi 2  i Pi   i
So it is a quadratic cost function. In actual case, Ci is a n-th order polynomial
and is a function of Pi.

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Incremental Fuel Cost (IFC)
The first derivative of cost function with respect to electrical power generation is the
IFC. Therefore for i-th generating unit,
Ci
IFCi   2 i Pi  i unit of cost/ MWhr
Pi

Ci
Ci   Pi  IFCi  Pi
Pi

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 Constraints to be considered in economic operation

1. Equality constraint: Power balance equation should be satisfied.

N
  Pi  PLoss  PLoad
i 1
N
If the line loss be neglected, P  P
i 1
i Load

2. Inequality constraint: Power generations will be within its specified limit,

Pimin  Pi  Pimax , i  1, 2,...N

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 Economic operation of thermal generating units neglecting transmission
line losses

Economic operation is only possible

when the total running cost (C ) i.e.,
the objective function is minimized
subject to the specified constraints.

The total running cost of the power system is given by

N
C  C1  C2  C3   Ci   CN   Ci …(1)
i 1
N

 Pi  PLoad
N
The constraint equation,    Pi  PLoad   …(2)
i 1
i 1

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The use of the Lagrange function (£) is conventional in order to achieve the
minimum value of the objective function (C). Here, the objective function (the cost
function C) is added to the constraint function () after the constrained function is
multiplied by an undetermined multiplier ()

. The Lagrangian function is then obtained as

N
£  C    C   (  Pi  PLoad ) …(3)
i 1

The substitution of the first partial derivative of £, with respect to each of the
independent variable to zero gives the necessary condition for the minimum value
of the objective function. This condition is commonly known as Kuhn-Tucker’s
condition of optimality.
£ C dCi
For the i-th plant, we have 0    0   0
Pi Pi dPi
dCi
  …(4) for i  1, 2,3, ,N
dPi

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 dCi
  …(4)
dPi
Equation (4) depicts the necessary condition for the existence of a minimum cost of
thermal power generation, i.e., cost minimization in thermal units in a no loss power
system is achieved when the incremental fuel cost (IFC) of all the units is equal to ,
the Lagrangian multiplier.

Hence for N number of thermal units, economic operation is obtained when

dC1 dC2 dC3 dCN

      …(5)
dP1 dP2 dP3 dPN

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Hence for N number of thermal units, economic operation is obtained when

dC1 dC2 dC3 dCN

      …(5)
dP1 dP2 dP3 dPN
N
And P  P
i 1
i Load …(6)

Equations (5) and (6) suffice for finding (N+1) unknowns, P1 , P2 , , Pi , , PN and 

Consideration of power generation limits in ELD:

If any generator crosses its limit then that generation will be fixed to the limit that it
has crossed. In that case load for economic scheduling should be modified by
subtracting the fixed output of exempted generator. Then equations (5) (6) are to
be resolved exempting that generator.

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 Example 1 : The cost functions of a two unit plants are
C1  100  2 P1  0.005P12 Rs/hr
C2  200  2 P2  0.01P22 Rs/hr
Where P1 and P2 are in MW. The plant supplies a load of 450 MW. Find economic
load schedule and incremental fuel cost. Neglect transmission line losses.

Solution: Incremental fuel cost (IFC) of the unit-1 is,

IFC1  2  0.01P1 …(1)

Similarly IFC2  2  0.02P2 …(2)

And the load is, 450 MW,  P1  P2  450 …(3)

Solving equations (1) , (2) and (3) we get

P1  300MW and P2  150MW

IFC1  2  0.01 300  5 Rs/MWh  IFC2

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Example 2 : The incremental fuel cost in Rs/MWh for a two unit plants are
IFC1  0.16P1  30 ; IFC2  0.2P2  25 Rs/MWhr
Where P1 and P2 are in MW. . Find economic distribution of a load of 115 MW. Also
calculate saving in fuel cost due to this economic distribution instead of equal
economic distribution of among the two units.

Solution: IFC1  0.16P1  30 1 , IFC2  0.2 P2  25  2 

And the load is, 115 MW.  P1  P2  115 …(3)

Solving equations (1) , (2) and (3) we get, P1  50MW and P2  65MW

IFC1  2  0.01 300  5 Rs/MWh  IFC2

In case of equal economic distribution of load, P1  P2  57.5MW

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 C
IFC   C   IFCdP
P
P1/ 50
C1   IFC1dP1    0.16 P1  30  dP1  289.5 Rs/hr
P1 57.5

P2/ 65
C2   IFC2 dP2    0.2 P2  25 dP2  279.375 Rs/hr
P2 57.5

Change in fuel cost = 289.75+279.375 = 10.125 Rs/hr

Negative sign indicates reduction in cost. Therefore there will be saving of 10.125
Rs/hr due to economic distribution of load among generators.

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Example 3
A load of 250 MW is to be shared by the three generators rated at 75, 100 and 120
MW in a power plant. Determine the optimum distribution of the load assuming
operating cost of the three generators to be,
C1 = 150 + 0.160 P1 + 0.002 P12
C2 = 100 + 0.200 P2 + 0.001 P22
C3 = 200 + 0.100 P1 + 0.001 P32
Solution: Economic generation schedule not considering generation limits:
Generation (MW): Pg1=48, Pg2=76, Pg3=126 and  =0.352 (Rs/MWh)
Upper bound of P-limit is crossed for gen-3 , Pg3=126
Final economic generation schedule considering generation limits.
Generation (MW): Pg1= 50, Pg2 = 80,  = 0.36 and Pg3 = 120 with  =0.34

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 End of Economic Operation

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