Hydrothermal self-scheduling problem in a day-ahead electricity market

This paper addresses the self-scheduling problem of determining the unit commitment status for power generation companies before submitting the hourly bids in a day-ahead market. The hydrothermal model is formulated as a deterministic optimization problem where expected profit is maximized using the 0/1 mixed-integer linear programming technique. This approach allows precise modelling of non-convex variable cost functions and non-linear start-up cost functions of thermal units, non-concave power-discharge characteristics of hydro units, ramp rate limits of thermal units and minimum up and down time constraints for both hydro and thermal units. Model incorporates long-term bilateral contracts with contracted power and price patterns, as well as forecasted market hourly prices for day-ahead auction. Solution is achieved using the homogeneous interior point method for linear programming as state of the art technique, with a branch and bound optimizer for integer programming. The effectiveness of the proposed model in optimizing the generation schedule is demonstrated through the case studies and their analysis. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.