An electricity market with a probabilistic spinning reserve criterion

This paper addresses the problem of reliability-constrained market-clearing in pool-based electricity markets with unit commitment. In general, probabilistic reliability criteria that implicitly set the reserve requirement are defined by the loss-of-load probability and by the expected load not served. As the computation of such metrics is complicated by their nonlinear and combinatorial nature, we introduce the notion of hybrid metrics based on the probabilities of loss-of-load due to single and double generation outages only. The reliability-constrained market-clearing problem can then be formulated as a mixed-integer linear program and solved with large-scale commercial solvers. Numerical tests with data from the IEEE Reliability Test System indicate that the new method is computationally efficient and produces market-clearing results with the desired probabilistic characteristics.