Optimal economic environmental dispatch considering wheeling charge

This paper presents the application of genetic algorithms (GA) to the economic environmental dispatch problem, considering transmission (or wheeling) charges. The traditional approach to economic dispatch is purely based on fuel costs. With increasing emphasis on environmental protection and system security, it is economically efficient for a generation company to consider the level of emissions and cost of wheeling when dispatching power. Fuel cost and emissions produced from a unit are generally related only to the amount of power to be produced. Wheeling charges, however are not only dependent on the amount of power to be transferred, but also closely linked to the network configuration and network traffic at the time, hence are highly nonlinear. This paper proposes a genetic algorithm based optimisation technique to take into account these nonlinearities, providing a useful tool for generation companies to dispatch power at the least possible cost and the minimum levels of pollution, where the cost to be minimised includes both fuel and wheeling cost.