Influence of the transition from hourly energy programs to power generation dispatches on the use of secondary reserve

The efficient management of the secondary reserve (automatic generation control regulation) by the system operator is addressed in this paper by the detailed following of the generating units hourly power schedules determined by each unit from the hourly energy program imposed by the energy market. The goal is to minimize the use of the secondary reserve by using load forecasting and units scheduling. This problem can be modeled as an optimization problem from which the conditions for the optimal management of this reserve is established. Several scheduling cases are presented and their impact on the use of generation reserve and on the performance of the classical AGC schemes are addressed.