Operational optimization of an industrial power plant for electricity trading in a power exchange

This paper discusses issue of maximizing profit while operating an industrial power plant under variable spot price (SP) of electricity and load demand (LD). Such a plant can be connected to a power grid by a tie line on which power can flow in both directions. In a Liberalised Electricity Environment (LEE) an industrial plant manager determines least costly operating points for its own generators and submits a demand bid (DB) and a supply bid (SB) in a power exchange (PX). In this paper, a methodology has been developed to take operational data of two real generators and determine their economical production levels as well as a DB and a SB over a range of SP. Optimization results of a power plant operating in a LEE are presented for the scenario of LD being less than plant capacity. Our results show that considerable savings are possible by electricity trading through a PX.