Model predictive dispatch in electric energy systems with intermittent resources

This paper addresses potential benefits of applying model predictive control (MPC) to solving the energy dispatch problem in electric energy systems with many intermittent renewable resources. Based on predicting the output from the intermittent resources, this paper introduces a look-ahead optimal control algorithm for dispatching the available generation with the objective of minimizing the total production cost. This method is compared with the static economic dispatch which treats intermittent resources as uncertain negative loads. We suggest that the proposed MPC approach could lower the total generation cost by directly dispatching the output from the renewable resources in order to compensate temporal load variations over pre-defined time horizons. A small 12-bus power system comprising five generators is simulated to illustrate potential benefits from a look-ahead dispatch of both intermittent and more conventional power plants. The proposed method is directly applicable to managing systems with large presence of wind and photovoltaic resources.