Optimal Bidding Strategies for Thermal and Generic Programming Units in the Day-Ahead Electricity Market

This study has developed a stochastic programming model that integrates the day-ahead optimal bidding problem with the most recent regulation rules of the Iberian Electricity Market (MIBEL) for bilateral contracts (BC), with a special consideration for the new mechanism to balance the competition of the production market, namely virtual power plant (VPP) auctions. The model allows a price-taking generation company (GenCo) to decide on the unit commitment of the thermal units, the economic dispatch of the BCs between the thermal units and the generic programming unit (GPU), and the optimal sale/purchase bids for all units (thermal and generic), by observing the MIBEL regulation. The uncertainty of the spot prices has been represented through scenario sets built from the most recent real data using scenario reduction techniques. The model has been solved using real data from a Spanish generation company and spot prices, and the results have been reported and analyzed.