Load-curtailment model for economic loading of thermal generation

Economic loading of thermal generation systems has to take account of possible generation loss. A frequently stated requirement is that there should be sufficient emergency reserve to cover loss of the largest infeed. The cost of fulfilling this requirement can be considerable in the case of small systems, where the largest infeed is likely to be a significant proportion of installed capacity. A method is given which allows the operator to strike a balance between the cost of holding emergency reserve and the cost to consumers of possible loss of supply. The method uses a special-purpose dual simplex linear programming algorithm.