Generation maintenance scheduling considering shiftable loads

Generation maintenance scheduling (GMS) is vital for the reliable and economical operation of a power system. With the increase in electricity demand, the generation reserve margin is decreased. In competitive electricity markets, the coordination of the conflicts among GENCOs´ proposed outage schedules challenges the system operators. This paper proposes that demand side flexibility can be utilized to achieve a better solution. Load shifting costs are used to express users´ willingness to shift their loads. A coordination mode between GENCOs and shiftable loads and a compensatory mechanism for shiftable loads are proposed in this paper. On this basis, the GMS model with shiftable loads is structured as a mixed integer programming (MIP) and mixed integer quadratic programming (MIQP) problem that can be solved by commercial solvers CPLEX. A modified IEEE 30-bus case is utilized for detailed analysis. Numerical results show that the proposed model is effective and the shiftable load can improve both the economy and reliability of GMS.