Economic dispatch of energy sources with restrictions on fuel using TLBO algorithm

ABSTRACT

Economic dispatch aims to make the minimal operating cost of power plant by determining the optimal power produced by each generating unit under constrained circumstances. At the present time, power utilities have stumble upon a fresh dispatch problem, because of crucial concern over fuel shortages. Fuel suppliers increase constraints in their fuel supply contracts that force the utilities to schedule the generation on the basis of fuel availability. With the ever increasing proportion of the fuel budget in the total operating costs, the fuel restricted economic dispatch problem has popped up. A new methodology based on a teaching learning-based optimization algorithm is proposed for solving fuel restricted economic dispatch problems. The potential of the proposed method is tested with standard test systems which include different cost characteristics. The obtained results are compared to other algorithms surfaced in the recent state-of-the-art literature, confirming the effectiveness of the developed methodology.

KEYWORDS:

• Convex cost functions
• economic dispatch
• fuel restrictions
• non-convex cost functions
• teaching learning optimization

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the authorities of Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar, Tamil Nadu, India, for the facilities provided to carry out this research work.

Nomenclature

ai, bi, ci, di	=	fuel cost coefficients of the ith generator
αj, βj, γj,ηj	=	gas coefficients of the jth generator
cg, FT	=	cost of the gas and total operating cost of the system ($), respectively
Fi, FTj	=	fuel cost of non-fuel restricted and fuel restricted unit, respectively ($/h)
hz, Zmax	=	hours per interval and number of intervals, respectively
N, NT	=	number of non-fuel restricted and fuel restricted units, respectively
PD, PL	=	power demand and transmission loss, respectively (MW)
Pi, PTj	=	generation of non-fuel restricted and fuel restricted unit, respectively (MW)
Pi,min, Pi,max	=	minimum and maximum generation limit of non-fuel restricted unit (MW)
PTj,min,PTj,max	=	minimum and maximum generation limit of fuel restricted unit (MW)
qTj	=	fuel consumed by jth fuel restricted generator (kg/h)
QT	=	total quantity of fuel consumed by fuel restricted plants (kg)