Many areas in power systems require solving one or more nonlinear optimization problems. While analytical methods might suffer from slow convergence and the curse of dimensionality, heuristics-based swarm intelligence can be an efficient alternative. Particle swarm optimization (PSO), part of the swarm intelligence family, is known to effectively solve large-scale nonlinear optimization problems. This paper presents a detailed overview of the basic concepts of PSO and its variants. Also, it provides a comprehensive survey on the power system applications that have benefited from the powerful nature of PSO as an optimization technique. For each application, technical details that are required for applying PSO, such as its type, particle formulation (solution representation), and the most efficient fitness functions are also discussed.

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Particle Swarm Optimization: Basic Concepts, Variants and Applications in Power Systems

In a restructured power market, the independent system operator (ISO) executes the security-constrained unit commitment (SCUC) program to plan a secure and economical hourly generation schedule for the day-ahead market. This paper introduces an efficient SCUC approach with ac constraints that obtains the minimum system operating cost while maintaining the security of power systems. The proposed approach applies the Benders decomposition for separating the unit commitment (UC) in the master problem from the network security check in subproblems. The master problem applies the augmented Lagrangian relaxation (LR) method and dynamic programming (DP) to solve UC. The subproblem checks ac network security constraints for the UC solution to determine whether a converged and secure ac power flow can be obtained. If any network violations arise, corresponding Benders cuts will be formed and added to the master problem for solving the next iteration of UC. The iterative process will continue until ac violations are eliminated and a converged optimal solution is found. In this paper, a six-bus system and the IEEE 118-bus system with 54 units are analyzed to exhibit the effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Security-constrained unit commitment with AC constraints

This paper proposes an enhanced adaptive Lagrangian relaxation (ELR) for a unit commitment (UC) problem. ELR consists of adaptive LR (ALR) and heuristic search. The ALR algorithm is enhanced by new on/off decision criterion, new initialization of Lagrangian multipliers, unit classification, identical marginal unit decommitment, and adaptive adjustment of Lagrangian multipliers. After the ALR best feasible solution reached is obtained, the heuristic search consisting of unit substitution and unit decommitment is used to fine tune the solution. The proposed ELR is tested and compared to conventional Lagrangian relaxation (LR), genetic algorithm (GA), evolutionary programming (EP), Lagrangian relaxation and genetic algorithm (LRGA), and genetic algorithm based on unit characteristic classification (GAUC) on the systems with the number of generating units in the range of 10 to 100. ELR total system production costs are less expensive than the others especially for the large number of generating units. Furthermore, the computational times of ELR are much less than the others and increase linearly with the system size, which is favorable for large-scale implementation.

Unit commitment by enhanced adaptive Lagrangian relaxation

This paper addresses the self-scheduling of a hydro generating company in a pool-based electricity market. This company comprises several cascaded plants along a river basin. The objective is to maximize the profit of the company from selling energy in the day-ahead market. This paper proposes a 0/1 mixed-integer linear programming model to account, in every plant, for the nonlinear and nonconcave three-dimensional (3-D) relationship between the power produced, the water discharged, and the head of the associated reservoir. Additionally, start-up costs due mainly to the wear and tear are considered. Finally, different realistic case studies are analyzed in detail.

Self-scheduling of a hydro producer in a pool-based electricity market

The paper deals with a unit commitment problem of a generation company whose aim is to find the optimal scheduling of a multiunit pump-storage hydro power station, for a short term period in which the electricity prices are forecasted. The problem has a mixed-integer nonlinear structure, which makes very hard to handle the corresponding mathematical models. However, modern mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) software tools have reached a high efficiency, both in terms of solution accuracy and computing time. Hence we introduce MILP models of increasing complexity, which allow to accurately represent most of the hydroelectric system characteristics, and turn out to be computationally solvable. In particular we present a model that takes into account the head effects on power production through an enhanced linearization technique, and turns out to be more general and efficient than those available in the literature. The practical behavior of the models is analyzed through computational experiments on real-world data.

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An MILP Approach for Short-Term Hydro Scheduling and Unit Commitment With Head-Dependent Reservoir

This paper describes experiences with mixed integer linear programming (MILP) based approaches on the short-term hydro scheduling (STHS) function. The STHS is used to determine the optimal or near-optimal schedules for the dispatchable hydro units in a hydro-dominant system for a user-definable study period at each time step while respecting all system and hydraulic constraints. The problem can be modeled in detail for a hydro system that contains both conventional and pumped-storage units. Discrete and dynamic constraints such as unit startup/shutdown and minimum-up/minimum-down time limits are also included in the model for hydro unit commitment (HUC). The STHS problem is solved with a state-of-the-art package which includes an algebraic modeling language and a MILP solver. The usefulness of the proposed solution algorithm is illustrated by testing the problem with actual hydraulic system data. Numerical experiences show that the solution technique is computationally efficient, simple, and suitable for decision support of short-term hydro operations planning. In addition, the proposed approaches can be easily extended for scheduling applications in a deregulated environment.

T. Burton

Papers

Experiences with Mixed Integer Linear Programming-Based Approaches in Short-Term Hydro Scheduling