Method for economic secure loading of a power system

A procedure is described for determining the most economical schedule, consistent with network security requirements, for loading plant in a power system. Conventional methods require excessive calculation time and computer storage, which render them impracticable for online computer control; these difficulties are overcome by using a linear-programming procedure utilising a modified form of the simplex method. This modified method enables the network relationships to be used to reduce the computation and storage required. With currently available computers such as the IBM 7094, the method is applicable to systems up to the size of a Grid control area.