Power System Planning &

Operation

1
 Outline

Overview of Power Systems

Power System Studies, a Time-horizon Perspective

Overview of the course:

Overview of Power System Operation & Control

Overview of Power System Planning

2
Chapter-one
Introduction

3
STRUCTURE Of ETHIOPIAN POWER SYSTEM

4
 Contd

The objective of the planning exercise is to come up with the minimum

cost plan which satisfies the operational constraint. The following
examples are some of the power system planning and operation
planning which need decision and control function:

1- Alternative network additions

2- Alternative generation additions
3- Transaction scheduling
4- Generation maintenance scheduling

5
Power System Studies, a Time-horizon Perspective

Consider 2 cases:

Construction of a new power plant to serve a predicted load in 10

years from now.

The expert has to decide on its required capacity, type and where
the plant has to be connected to the network.
Once decided properly, its construction has to be started ahead of
time, so that the plant is available in 10 years time.
This is a typical long-term study of power systems

6
Contd

building a transmission line, passing through a mountainous area.

Once built, the line may be subject to severe lightning. Lightning
is such a very fast phenomena that it affects the system within
nano-seconds.

The designer should think of appropriate provisions on the line, by

proper modeling the system in these very fast situations and
performing enough studies, to make sure that the line does not fail,
if such lightning happens in practice. This is a typical very short-
term study of power systems.

7
Contd

8
Contd

Maintenance Scheduling

Provided sufcient generation and transmission facilities are available

for serving the loads, a power system decision maker should perform
a 1 week to 1 year study to decide, in advance, on maintaining power
system elements (power plants, transmission lines, etc.).

Moreover, the decision maker should know which elements are not
available within the current year, so he or she can base his or her next
decisions only on available elements.

9
 Power system operation and control

The operational phase starts from 1 week to minutes.

These types of studies may be generally classied as

Hours to 1 week (for example, unit commitment),

Several minutes to 1 h (for example, economic dispatch, Optimal
Power Flow (OPF)),
Minutes (for example, Automatic Generation Control (AGC)).

10
 Power system operation and control

are guided by the endeavor of the utility to supply electric energy to

the customer in the most economic and secure way.

Economic operation is very important for a power system to

return a profit on the capital invested.

We have different studies:

Economic Dispatch
Unit Commitment
Automatic Generation Control

11
 The Economic Dispatch Problem

Since all the generating units that are online have different costs of
generation, it is necessary to nd the generation levels of each of
these units that would meet the load at the minimum cost.

An economic dispatch calculation (EDC) is performed to dispatch, or

schedule, a set of online generating units to collectively produce
electricity at a level that satises a specied demand in an economical
manner.

We determine how the output of each of the plants of a system is

scheduled to achieve the minimum cost of power delivered to the
load.
12
 Contd

How much fuel (energy) should each plant produce for minimum cost
power supply? identies the amount to generate at each online unit in
order to achieve a set of economic goals.

Allocation of total load among the plants (how should the plants share
the total load)

13
 The unit commitment (UC) problem

Economic dispatch gives the optimum schedule corresponding to one

particular load on the system. The total load in the power system
varies throughout the day and reaches different peak value from one
day to another.

Different combination of generators, are to be connected in the

system to meet the varying load.

because of the daily load variation, the utility has to decide on

the basis of economics which generators to start up, which to
shut down, and in what order.

14
Contd

When the load increases, the utility has to decide in advance the
sequence in which the generator units are to be brought in.

Similarly, when the load decreases, the operating engineer need to

know in advance the sequence in which the generating units are to
be shut down.

The problem of finding the order in which the units are to be brought
in and the order in which the units are to be shut down over a period
of time, say one day, so the total operating cost involved on that day is
minimum, is known as Unit Commitment (UC) problem.
Thus UC problem is economic dispatch over a day. The period
considered may a week, month or a year.
15
Contd

The unit commitment (UC) problem is dened as the scheduling of a

set of generating units to be on, off, or in stand-by/banking mode for a
given period of time to meet a certain objective. UC Determines start-
up and shut-down times for most economical operation of thermal
generating units for each hour of a specied period of 1 to 7 days.

it is quite expensive to run too many generating units when the load is
not large enough.
a great deal of money can be saved by turning units off (decommiting
them) when they are not needed.

16
Illustration
Suppose from ten power
plants of a system, in the
coming week, three are
not available due to
scheduled maintenances.
The decision maker
should decide on using
the available plants for
serving the predicted
load for each hour of the
coming week.

17
 Unit Commitment

The decision maker should decide on using the available plants for
serving the predicted load for each hour of the coming week.
He or she should decide on the generation level of each plant, as the
generation capacities of all plants may be noticeably higher than the
predicted load. The nal decision may be in the form of:
Commit unit 1 (generation level: 100 MW), unit 3 (generation
level: 150 MW) and unit 6 (generation level: 125 MW), to serve
the predicted load of 375 MW at hour 27 of the week (1 week =
168 h).
Commit unit 1 (generation level: 75 MW) and unit 3 (generation
level:120 MW), to serve the predicted load of 195 MW at hour 35
of the week.
A complete list for all hours of the week should be generated.
18
 Economic Dispatch

Once we come to the exact hour, the actual load may not be equal to
the predicted load. Suppose, for instance, that the actual load at hour
27 to be 390 MW, instead of 375 MW.

A further study has to be performed in that hour to allocate the actual

load of 390 MW among the available plants at that hour (units 1, 3
and 6).

This is type of economic dispatch or Optimal Power Flow (OPF)

19
 Automatic Generation Control (AGC)

Faster time period

Because the total load of the power system varies throughout

the day, coordinated control of the power plant outputs is
necessary to ensure generation-to-load balance so that the system
frequency will remain as close as possible to the nominal
operating value, usually 50 or 60 Hz.

automatically controls the generation of the plants (for instance units

1, 3 and 6) via telemetry signals to required levels, to satisfy the load
of 390 MW at hour 27.

20
 Power system planning
Power system planning is a process in which the aim is to decide on
new as well as upgrading existing system elements, to adequately
satisfy the loads for a foreseen future.

The elements may be

Generation facilities
Substations
Transmission lines and/or cables
Capacitors/Reactors
Etc.

21
 Contd

The decision should be,

Where to allocate the element (for instance, the sending and
receiving end of a line),
When to install the element (for instance, 2015),
What to select, in terms of the element specications (for
instance, number of bundles and conductor type)

The main objectives of power system planning are:

1. To generate adequate energy for supplying the customers demand at

low price, efficient conversion system and low environmental and
social impacts
22
 Contd

1. To transmit this energy from long distances of generation stations to the load centres
at low price, more efficient, stable and reliable conditions.

2. To distribute the transmitted energy from substations to customers at a quality

service, low price and efficient utilization of the energy.

In other words:
Power system Planning is optimization of facilities necessary to provide adequate
electrical energy in a power system network at a least cost, low environmental and
social impacts through which a sustainable energy supply to customers is attained.
Thus, power system planning gives the necessary basis and jumpstart for a detail
power system design construction operation.

23
 Power System Planning

Power systems must be planned. There are several

overarching steps that must be followed:

1) Load Forecasting
Power system planning starts by forecasting
the anticipated future loads.
How much electrical load must be served
Where will the loads be located.
How much will the load peak, how much of
the load is weather sensitive.

24
 Contd

The rst crucial step for any planning study is to predict the
consumption for the study period (say 20152020), as all subsequent
studies will be based on that.

Load (demand) forecasting is used to define the generation needed for

the system and the transmission and distribution additions and it is
defined as the projection of future load requirements using a
systematic process (methodology) of defining future loads in a
sufficient quantitative analysis to permit important system expansion
decision to be made.
It is basically concerned with
- Load (demand) forecasting
- Energy forecasting
25
 Contd

Load forecasting is also needed for budgeting purposes and energy

forecast is needed to determine future type of generating units and
fuel requirements.
Short-term load forecasting, used for operational studies
long-term one used in planning studies

2) Generation Planning
After predicting the load, the next step is to determine the generation
requirements to satisfy the load.
How much generation must be present.
How much reserve generation must be available. What is the
minimum generation reserve that must be present to guarantee reliable
generation supply.
26
 Contd

What is the acceptable level of generation reliability. (i.e. what is the

probability that generation will not be able to supply load on any
given hour of the year).
Where should new generation be sited?
Generation Cost Analysis: What are the best generation sources that
will deliver adequate generation reliability at minimum cost.

4) Transmission System Planning

Security Analysis will the transmission system deliver all the
electrical energy demanded by the loads when one or even two
components are out.
27
 Contd

Transmission Reliability Analysis how reliable is the transmission

system? What is the probability that the transmission system cannot
deliver the electric energy to the loads.
Generation reliability and its relationship to transmission system
design. How much will a given transmission line enhance the generation
reliability?
How many tiers of voltage should there be between the generators and
the loads?
Should transmission be designed to serve the common carrier service
requirements of an open market place, or should it be designed to serve
loads from local generators.

28
 Contd

How do you design the optimal transmission plan. What makes it

optimal (cost, reliability, aesthetics, reserve for future growth, etc.)

5) Financial Analysis
How will the generation and transmission purchases and construction
be financed?
Will the customer loads and the prices for energy guarantee sufficient
revenues to meet the financial obligations.

29
 Contd

6) Power System Reliability (reliability that takes into account the

interaction of generation, transmission, distribution and loads)

How reliable should power delivery be? Can we place a cost on

outages for residential, business, and industrial customers.
Can we design a power system to an optimal cost effective
system?

30
31