An economic analysis of the self commitment of thermal units

Given the load profile of an electricity market and the capabilities of the set of generators supplying power to that market, it is likely that at any given point in time, available supply will exceed demand. If only a subset of generators is required, some method is required to commit and de-commit generators. In the past, system operators have employed a centralized method of unit commitment. Deregulation of the electricity industry throws doubt on the continued suitability of this method due to fairness issues and availability of accurate cost data. This paper examines the performance of decentralized unit commitment, where dispatch of generators is determined by offer curves submitted into a spot market by power producers.