Generation maintenance scheduling in restructured power systems

This paper addresses generation maintenance scheduling in a competitive electric energy environment. In a centralized setting, the system operator derives a maintenance scheduling plan that attains the desired reliability while minimizing cost and imposes it to all producers. In a competitive environment, this is not possible because the operator is still in charge of maintaining an adequate level of reliability, but the target of each producer is to maximize its own profits, which conflicts in general with the reliability objective of the operator. This paper proposes a technically sound coordinating mechanism based on incentives/disincentives among producers and the operator, which allows producers to maximize their respective profits while the operator ensures an appropriate level of reliability.