A decomposition approach to nonlinear multi-area generation scheduling with tie-line constraints using expert systems

The authors propose a rigorous method to treat multiarea generation scheduling with tie line limits. An expert system was used for obtaining the initial solution. As the generation scheduling problem involves unit commitment and economic dispatch, the method adopts an iterative procedure to deal with these two phases. The hourly load demand and the area power generation will cause the tie flows to change. To maintain the operation security in every area, the spinning reserve should comply with the area power generation rather than its load demand. After economic dispatch, it is necessary to adjust the unit commitment in each area for preserving the spinning reserve requirements. Heuristics were used to modify the generation unit combinations. The objective is to find an economic generation schedule for a multiarea system. The interchange transactions among areas represent the transportation problem, embedded within the nonlinear optimization process. The equivalent system concept is adopted, and the transmission losses are included in this study. A four-area system with each area consisting of 26 units was used to test the efficiency of the proposed algorithm