Resource commitment justification in RTO real time operation

In the real time operation of a Regional Transmission Organization (RTO), the generation resource commitment plans are constantly revised for the look-ahead time horizon due to changes in system operating conditions. Optimization based resource commitment algorithms can most effectively help to minimize the costs of committing new resources. However, most optimization algorithms lack transparency on how commitment decisions are made internally. Such transparency is necessary for the RTO operators to understand and approve the commitment recommendations. This study provides an effective method for identifying the reliability and economic justifications behind the new resources recommended for commitment by the optimization algorithm. The method has been implemented for the RTO, and has been validated by real-time operational experience.