UNIT-II

UNIT COMMITMENT
TOPICS:
Unit commitment problem, Priority order scheduling, dynamic programming
approach to Unit commitment problem, Hydro-Thermal coordination

INTRODUCTION :
The total load of the power system is not constant but varies throughout the day
and reaches a different peak value from one day to another. It follows a particular
hourly load cycle over a day. There will the different discrete load levels at each period
as shown in Fig.

Due to the above reason, it is not advisable to run all available units all the time,
and it is necessary to decide in advance which generators are to start-up, when to
connect them to the network, the sequence in which the operating units should he shut
down, and for how long. The computational procedure for making such decisions is
called unit commitment (UC), and a unit when scheduled for connection to the system
is said to he committed.
The problem of UC is nothing but to determine the units that should operate for
a particular load. To 'commit' a generating unit is to 'turn it on', i.e., to bring it up to
speed, synchronize it to the system, and connect it, so that it can deliver power to the
network.
Economic dispatch economically distributes the actual system load as it rises to
the various units that are already on-line. However, the UC problem plans for the best
set of units to the available to supply the predicted or forecast load of the system over a
future time period.

NEED FOR UC :
The plant commitment and unit-ordering schedules extend the period of
optimization from a few minutes to several hours.
Weekly patterns can he developed from daily schedules. Likewise, monthly,
seasonal, and annual schedules can he prepared by taking into consideration the
repetitive nature of the load demand and seasonal variations.
A great deal of money can he saved by turning off the units when they are not
needed for the time. If the operation of the system is to be optimized, the UC
schedules are required for economically committing units in plant to service
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 with the time at which individual units should be taken out from or returned to
service.
This problem is of importance for scheduling thermal units in a thermal plant; as
for other types of generation such as hydro, their aggregate costs (such as start-
up costs, operating fuel costs, and shut-down costs) are negligible so that their
on-off status is not important.

UNIT COMMITMENT PROBLEM

Unit commitment (UC) is an optimization problem used to determine the
operation schedule of the generating units at every hour interval with varying loads
under different constraints and environments. It has been divided into many sections
which include various constraints based on profit, security, emission and time.
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.
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 may be
considered for a week, month or a year.
Note that to commit means a generating unit is to be turned on; that is, bring
the unit up to speed, synchronize it to the system and make it to deliver power to the
network. Commit enough units and leave them on line is one solution. However, it is
quite expensive to run too many generating units when the load is not large enough.

CONSTRAINTS IN UC :
There are many constraints to be considered in solving the UC problem.
(i) Spinning reserve:
It is the term used to describe the total amount of generation available from all
synchronized units on the system minus the present load and losses being supplied.
Here, the synchronized units on the system may be named units spinning on the system.
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 The spinning reserve must he maintained so that the failure of one or more units
does not cause too far a drop in system frequency. Simply if one unit fails, there must be
an ample reserve on the other units to make up for the loss in a specified time period.

(ii)Thermal unit constraints:

A thermal unit can undergo only gradual temperature changes and this
translates into a time period (of some hours) required to bring the unit on the line. Due
to such limitations in the operation of a thermal plant, the following constraints are to
be considered.
(a) Minimum up-time: During the minimum up-time, once the unit is operating (up
state), it should not he turned off immediately.
(b) Minimum down-time: The minimum down-time is the minimum time during
which the unit is in 'down' state. i.e., once the unit is decommitted, there is a
minimum time before it can he recommitted.
(c) Crew constraints: If a plant consists of two or more units, they cannot both be
turned on at the same time since there are not enough crew members to attend
to both units while starting up.

Start-up cost :
In addition to the above constraints, because the temperature and the pressure
of the thermal unit must he moved slowly, a certain amount of energy must be
expended to bring the unit on-line and is brought into the UC problem as a start-up cost.
The start-up cost may vary from a maximum 'cold-start' value to a very small value if
the unit was only turned off recently, and it is still relatively close to the operating
temperature.
Two approaches to treating a thermal unit during its 'down' state:
The first approach (cooling) allows the unit's boiler to cool down and then heat back
up to a operating temperature in time for a scheduled turn-on.
The second approach (banking) requires that sufficient energy be input to the boiler
to just maintain the operating temperature.
The best approach can be chosen by comparing the costs for the above two approaches.
Let CC be the cold-start cost (MBtu), C be the fuel cost, CF be the fixed cost
(includes crew expenses and maintainable expenses), be the thermal time constant
for the unit, Ct be the cost of maintaining unit at operating temperature (MBtu/hr), and
t be the time the unit was cooled (hr).

(iii) Hydro-constraints:
As pointed out already that the UC problem is of much importance for the
scheduling of thermal units, it is not the meaning of UC that cannot he completely
separated from the scheduling of a hydro-unit.
The hydro-thermal scheduling will he explained as separated from the UC
problem. Operation of a system having both hydro and thermal plants is, however, far
more complex as hydro-plants have negligible operation costs, but are required to
operate under constraints of water available for hydro-generation in a given period of
time.
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 The problem of minimizing the operating cost of a hydro-thermal system can be
viewed as one of minimizing the fuel cost of thermal plants under the constraint of
water availability for hydro-generation over a given period of operation.

(iv) Must run:

It is necessary to give a must-run reorganization to sonic units of the plant
during certain events of the year, by which we yield the voltage support on the
transmission network or for such purpose as supply of steam for uses outside the steam
plant itself.

(v)Fuel constraints:
A system in which some units have limited fuel or else have constraints that
require them to burn a specified amount of fuel in a given time presents a most
challenging UC problem.

UNIT COMMITMENT SOLUTION METHODS

PRIORITY ORDER SCHEDULING

The method will be explained through an example. Consider three thermal units
operating with the following incremental fuel rate characteristics.

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The general procedure can be then stated as,
1. Check at the end of every hour of operation, if the load demand has fallen. If the
demand has decreased check if the last unit in the priority list is dropped, the load
demand can be met, satisfying the spinning reserve requirement. Status quo is
maintained if the demand cannot be met.
2. If it is possible to drop the unit in step 1, then determine the number of hours "h"
before the unit is required again for service. If this "h" is less than the shut down and
starts up times for the unit, it has to be left in service without removal.
3. Then, calculate the cost of floating the unit within the system without supplying any
generation and the cost of shut down and start up processes and if there is sufficient
savings from shutting it down, and starting it again for service it can be removed.
4. The process is to be repeated for the next unit on the priority list and continued.
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PROBLEMS:
1) Determine the solution of UC problem by constructing a priority list for the following
units

SOL:
The incremental fuel rate characteristics of three units are
dH 1
F1 7.2 0.00284P1
dP1
dH 2
F2 7.85 0.00388P2
dP2
dH 3
F3 7.97 0.00964P3
dP3

The full-load average production cost will be calculated as:

Full load average production cost of unit-1 = (7.2 0.00284 600)1.1 = 9.79 Rs/MW-hr
Full load average production cost of unit-2 = (7.85 0.00388 400)1.0 = 9.40 Rs/MW-hr
Full load average production cost of unit-3 = (7.97 0.00964 200)1.2 = 11.88 Rs/MW-hr
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The commitment scheme would simply use only the following combinations.

Conclusion :
For 1200MW < Load > 1000MW : unit-1+unit-2+unit-3 combination is used
For 1000MW < Load > 400MW : unit-1+unit-2 combination is used.
Upto the load 400MW : Unit-2 only is used.

2) Obtain the solution of UC problem by constructing a priority list for the following
units

SOL:
The incremental fuel rate characteristics of three units are
dC1
F1 8.46 0.005684PG1
dPG1
dC 2
F2 8.32 0.005872PG 2
dPG 2
dC3
F3 9.884 0.012898PG 3
dP3
The full-load average production cost will be calculated as:
Full load average production cost of unit-1 = (8.46 0.005684 650) = 12.15 Rs/MW-hr
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Full load average production cost of unit-2 = (8.32 0.005872 450) = 10.96 Rs/MW-hr
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Full load average production cost of unit-3 = (9.884 0.012898 300) = 13.75 Rs/MW-hr
The priority order of these units based on average production cost is as follows

The commitment scheme would simply use only the following combinations.

Conclusion :
For 1400MW < Load > 1100MW : unit-1+unit-2+unit-3 combination is used
For 1100MW < Load > 450MW : unit-1+unit-2 combination is used.
Upto the load 450MW : Unit-2 only is used.

DYNAMIC PROGRMMING (DP)METHOD

This method can be applied to problems in which many sequential decisions are
required to be taken in defining the optimum operation of a system or process
composed of a distinct number of stages. However, it is suitable only when the decisions
at the later stages do not affect the operation at the earlier stages.

The principle and methodology will be explained through a routing problem.

Consider the route map shown in Fig. The values on the routes are the cost of
transport along the route. Let G be the goal to be reached from any of the locations A, B,
C, D, E, F. Traffic is allowed only along the direction shown on the routes.
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 It is desired to reach the goal G or destination G from the various locations. The
costs are as indicated.

We can thus conclude that the minimum cost to move from one location P to
another location R via Q is given by

In the dynamic-programming approach that follows, we assume that:

1. A state consists of an array of units with specified units operating and the rest off-line.
2. The start-up cost of a unit is independent of the time it has been off-line (i.e., it is a
fixed amount).
3. There are no costs for shutting down a unit.
4. There is a strict priority order, and in each interval a specified minimum amount of
capacity must be operating.
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MATHEMATICAL REPRESENTATION:
The benefit of this method is that having the best way of running N units, it is
simple to find out the best way for running N + 1 units. The DP approach is based on the
subsequent recurring equation.
Let
FM(P) is the minimum cost in Rs. /hr of generation of P MW by M generating units.
fM(Q) is the cost of generation of Q MW by Mth unit.
FM-1(P-Q) is the minimum cost of generation of (P-Q) MW by the remaining (M -1) units.
The following recursive relation will result with the application of DP

The flow chart for DP method based on the above equation is shown in the following fig.
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PROBLEM:
3) A power system network with a thermal power plant is operating by four generating
units. Determine the most economical unit to be committed to a load demand of 8MW.
Also, prepare the UC table for the load changes in steps of 1MW starting from the
minimum to the maximum load. The minimum and maximum generating capacities and
cost-curve parameters of the units listed in the following tabular form.
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 SOL:

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HYDRO-THERMAL COORDINATION
At present, there were mostly thermal power plants to generate electrical power.
There is a need for the development of hydro-power plants due to the following
reasons.
Due to the increment of power in the load demand from all sides such as
industrial, agricultural, commercial, and domestic.
Due to the high cost of fuel (coal).
Due to the limited range of fuel.
The hydro-plants can be started easily and can be assigned a load in very short
time. However, in the case of thermal plants, it requires several hours to make the
boilers, super heater, and turbine system ready to take the load. For this reason, the
hydro-plants can handle fast-changing loads effectively. The thermal plants in contrast
are slow in response. Hence, due to this, the thermal plants are more suitable to operate
as base load plants, leaving hydro-plants to operate as peak load plants.
The maximum advantage of cheap hydro-power should be taken so that the coal
reserves can be conserved and environmental pollution can be minimized. In a hydro-
thermal system, the whole or a part of the base load can be supplied by the run-off river
hydro-plants and the peak or the remaining load is then met by a proper co-ordination
of reservoir-type hydro-plants and thermal plants.
The operating cost of thermal plants is very high and at the same time its capital
cost is low when compared with a hydro-electric plant. The operating cost of a hydro-
electric plant is low and its capital cost is high such that it has become economical as
well as convenient to run both thermal as well as hydro-plants in the same grid.
The operation of a system having both hydro and thermal plants is more
complex as hydro-plants have a negligible operating cost but are required to run under
the constraint of availability of water for hydro-generation during a given period of
time. This problem is the dynamic optimization problem where the time factor is to be
considered.
The optimal scheduling problem in a hydro-thermal system can be stated as to
minimize the fuel cost of thermal plants under the constraint of water availability for
hydro-generation over a given period of operation.
Consider a simple hydro-thermal system, shown in Fig., which consists of one
hydro and one thermal plant supplying power to load connected at the centre in
between the plants and is referred to as the fundamental system.
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 A run-off river hydro-plant operates as the water is available in needed
quantities. These plants are provided with a small poundage or reservoir, which makes
it possible to meet the hourly variation of load.
As such the run-off river plants have very little from capacity. The usefulness of
these run-off river plants can be considerably increased if such a plant is properly co-
ordinated with a thermal plant. When such co-ordination exists, the hydro-plant may
carry the base load upto its installed capacity during the period of high stream flows
and the thermal plant may carry the peak load. During the period of lean flow, the
thermal plant supplies the base load and the hydro-plant supplies the peak load. Thus,
the load met by a thermal plant can be adjusted to conform to the available river flow.
This type of co-ordination of a run-off river hydro-plant with a thermal plant results in a
greater utilization factor of the river flow and a saving in the amount of fuel consumed
in the thermal plant.

(i)LONG-TERM CO-ORDINATION
Typical long-term co-ordination may be extended from one week to one year or
several years. The co-ordination of the operation of reservoir hydro-power plants and
steam plants involves the best utilization of available water in terms of the scheduling of
water released. In other words, since the operating costs of hydro-plants are very low,
hydro-power can be generated at very little incremental cost. In a combined operational
system, the generation of thermal power should be displaced by available hydro-power
so that maximum decrement production costs will be realized at the steam plant. The
long-term scheduling problem involves the long-term forecasting of water availability
and the scheduling of reservoir water releases for an interval of time that depends on
the reservoir capacities and the chronological load curve of the system. Based on these
factors during different times of the year, the hydro and steam plants can be operated as
base load plants and peak load plants and vice versa.
For the long-term drawdown schedule, a basic best policy selection must be
made. The best policy is that should the water be used under the assumption that it will
be replaced at a rate based on the statistically expected rate or should the water be
released using a worst-case prediction?
Long-term scheduling is made based on an optimizing policy in view of
statistically treated unknowns such as load, hydraulic inflows, and unit availability (i.e.,
steam and hydro-plants).
The useful techniques employed for this type of scheduling problems include:
the simulation of an entire long-term operational time period for a given set of
operating conditions by using the dynamic programming method,
composite hydraulic simulation models, and
statistical production cost models.
For the long-term scheduling of a hydro-thermal system, there should be
required generation to meet the requirements of load demand and both hydro and
thermal generations should be so scheduled so as to maintain the minimum fuel costs.
This requires that the available water should be put to an optimum use.
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(ii)SHORT-TERM CO-ORDINATION
The economic system operation of thermal units depends only on the conditions
that exist from instant to instant. However, the economic scheduling of combined
hydro-thermal systems depends on the conditions existing over the entire operating
period.
This type of hydro-thermal scheduling is required for one day or one week,
which involves the hour-by-hour scheduling of all available generations on a system to
get the minimum production cost for the given time. Such types of scheduling problems,
the load, hydraulic inflows, and unit availabilities are assumed to be known.
Here also, the problem is how to supply load, as per the load cycle during the
period of operation so that generation by thermal plants will be minimum. This
condition will be satisfied when the value of hydro-power generation rather than its
amount is a maximum over a certain period. The basic problem is that determining the
degree to which the minimized economy of operating the hydro-units at other than the
maximum efficiency loading may be tolerated for an increased economy with an
increased load or vice versa to result in the lowest total thermal power production costs
over the specified operating period.
The factors on which the economic operation of a combined hydro-thermal
system depends are as follows:
Load cycle.
Incremental fuel costs of thermal power stations.
Expected water inflow in hydro-power stations.
Water head that is a function of water storage in hydro-power stations.
Hydro-power generation.
Incremental transmission loss (ITL).

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