Dynamic economic load dispatch by calculus of variation considering ramp rate

In power system operation output power of generators should be properly adjusted in economical way so as to meet load demand which changes every moment. Besides, dynamic constraints such as output power ramp rates have to be observed to avoid excessive fatigue in plant structure, which leads to the necessity of solving dynamic economic load dispatch problems. This paper proposes a new solution technique for this issue using calculus of variation. In this method we have only to solve differential equations step by step starting from an initial condition. Numerical study is done using a simple model system to verify the performance of the proposed method. It enables us to avoid too steep ramp rate in the resultant economic dispatch solution without long computing time.