Advanced operation planning-second generation tools (Energy Transaction Management System)

Modern information and communication technology has become an integral and important part of the energy production and transmission process. Electric utilities can gain economical and ecological advantages by applying modern computer-aided operation planning and scheduling tools. They are based on modern decision-support methods using optimization models. Several critical success factors, especially arising in unbundled, competitive and privatized environments, can be influenced by applying such technologies. For example, operational costs can be reduced by an efficient ETMS (Energy Transaction Management System) in presence of spot-market like energy offerings i.e. purchasing and selling energy to and from other utilities sometimes with different frequencies, including electric railway systems (e.g. 16 2/3 Hz). Moreover the energy production can be increased by advanced resource management systems. Today, modern information technology, in combination with advanced modeling and optimization techniques, makes possible to meet the new ETMS-requirements. The ETM-process takes place in a spot-market like environment. Therefore, both short CPU-times and a very quick input of the transaction data are a necessary prerequisite for an efficient support of the responsible utility personnel