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EnglishEconomic Generation
Power Generation Industry across the world is highly strained because of environmental costs, depleting fuel resources, regulatory frameworks and aging plant equipments. Generating electricity the most economical way under all these constraints is a challenge. Operating a power plant efficiently irrespective of its fuel type involves multi-dimensional problems. Over a period of time equipment efficiency deteriorates, auxiliary equipments consume more energy, also fuel costs & quality vary based on the demand and availability, as a result economical efficiency of generating plants deviates from the design valves.Maintaining sustainable economics within all these constraints should be the central role of plant operations.
Economic Generation can be looked at as different models of profit maximization, cost minimization etc, which depends on which market the generator is functioning, regulatory framework around the market, and also the demand supply gap that exists. Kalkitech’s ELTRIX Economic Generation module provides a suite of off the shelf decision models which can be used for different types of market scenario.It provides a possibility of creating new decision model for economic generation. The sub-components available as part of economic generation are Merit Order Rating (MOR) and Unit Commitment.
Economic Generation can be looked at as different models of profit maximization, cost minimization etc, which depends on which market the generator is functioning, regulatory framework around the market, and also the demand supply gap that exists. Kalkitech’s ELTRIX Economic Generation module provides a suite of off the shelf decision models which can be used for different types of market scenario.It provides a possibility of creating new decision model for economic generation. The sub-components available as part of economic generation are Merit Order Rating (MOR) and Unit Commitment.
Support Documents
Off the shelf decision models as part of ELTRIX Economic Generation provides some benefits of cost minimization or profit maximization. The possibility of customizing these models helps in further extending the scale of these benefits.
ELTRIX Merit Order Rating (MOR) makes use of the fact that every generating unit has its own operating characteristics, shut down & startup costs, total cost of generation & plant efficiency. When such generating units are grouped together for scheduling or Automatic Generation Control (AGC), there exists a tremendous possibility of ensuring that the required schedule is met by keeping overall cost of generation for the group of units as minimum by achieving an optimal allocation amongst the units. In case of an Automatic Generation Control function a ramp up or ramp down of generation is done keeping the incremental cost of generation at the optimal value possible amongst the various generating units within the group. A Merit Order Rating can be done for day ahead and day of operation, with a granularity to time blocks for which generation is scheduled. MOR models can be used for capacity declaration and planning as well as for real-time generation control. Various constraints such as equipment maintenance & unit shutdowns, auxiliary failures, ramp up/ ramp down constraints, emission constraints etc are accounted for proving an output for Economic Load Dispatch.
ELTRIX Unit Commitment Model is used for planning the optimal use of generating resources based on the forecasts available. A generating unit’s shutdown cost, start up cost, operational cost, spinning reserve needs, emission constraints are the key decision variables considered for committing a particular unit for generation. A unit commitment model takes input from a forecasting model and the output of the unit commitment model can be given to Merit Order Rating model. Unit Commitment Model can be applied primarily for generation surplus markets or for generating companies with merchant power plants.
Both MOR and Unit Commitment are cost minimization models, similarly Eltrix support models for profit maximization where the objective functions as part of Economic Load Dispatch can be extended to consider day of operation forecast and issue advisory set points for ramping up or ramping down the generation to maximize the Unscheduled Interchange benefits if offered by the regulation in case of a deficit generation scenario. The schedule slippages for previous blocks can be recovered based on grid frequency for an availability based settlement mechanism.
- Build cost models for generating units with grouping under common AGC function from Eltrix model builder by simple drag-drop operations. These models can be linked with plant equipment and connectivity models.
- Economic Dispatch model complying to IEC-61970 Common Information Models for exchanging information with third party systems
- Option for uploading plant cost data and curve fitting from external systems.
- Integration options with maintenance management systems for plant shutdown/maintenance system , in case of no-maintenance management operator can enter maintenance plans from Eltrix web portal
- Status of auxiliary equipments are updated on a real-time basis from plant DCS or DAS systems
- Performance and Efficiency values are updated online from Plant Performance Monitoring system available
- Dynamic fitting of Plant Cost Curves & Heat Rate curves
- Off the shelf decision models for Merit Order Rating, Unit Commitment & UI Maximization available.
- Support for standard commercially available solvers to ensure global optimal points like CPLEX, MOSEK, CONOPT etc
- Decision models can be viewed, created or modified based on operation.
- Unit wise schedules available in various reporting formats.
- Web services based integration with Fuel Management Systems for accessing fuel properties and fuel schedules
