Power station scheduling with energy storage

Abstract

Power utilities are encouraged to convert existing conventional power plant into hybrid power plant by installing available renewable power units and energy storage facilities in order to meet the rapid increase in power demand. Energy storage facilities (ESF) in such hybrid power plant ensure a consistent level of renewable penetration throughout the operation period. However, a proper scheduling model for such hybrid power plant is essential in order to achieve a significant savings in fuel cost. The unit commitment and economic dispatch scheduling for a hybrid system consisting of thermal, renewable energy source and ESF-based units are modeled and illustrated in this paper. The data of Neyveli Thermal Power Station II are considered here to demonstrate the importance and applicability of the proposed scheduling approaches. Dynamic programming method is used to find feasible states of the generation units, while sequential quadratic programming algorithm is used for economic dispatch of committed units. The proposed approach is novel, timely useful as reported by the analysis of results.