Replicating interruptible supply contracts for security constrained transmission management

The authors introduce an exotic financial hedging tool in order to replicate interruptible load supply contracts. This derivative tool should guarantee the ISO the possibility of using interruptible resources "when" and "where" it actually needs them. A methodology, based on nonlinear programming, is proposed in order to give the technical tool necessary to exploit, on real-time operation, all control resources ensured by energy markets and by the proposed financial contracts. In the formulation, static and dynamic security constraints are taken into account. Moreover, costs related to control actions are minimized through the introduction of a pure economical objective function. The procedure has been implemented and tested on a representation of the Italian national grid.