Optimal Unit Commitment for Secure Operation of Solar Energy Integrated Smart Grid

Currently, the majority of the world’s electricity demand is met by thermal power generation stations that run purely on traditional fossil fuels. Utilities rely mainly on these sources to spend huge revenue to meet the ever-increasing demand for electricity. This motivates utilities to manage their generation most cost-effectively according to the load demand. Thus, an optimum generation allocation among the various power generating units can save considerable fuel inputs and expenses. Extending this optimization technique to decide which of these units would participate in the optimum allocation could theoretically save a greater amount of fuel costs. In other words, the determination of whether the device has to be ON/OFF is important. This is termed as unit commitment (UC). As for deciding the optimal generation dispatch for the minimum cost, a complete optimal power flow (OPF) is run over the UC time horizon for each hour’s commitment. Conventional OPF solves all constraints such as fixed bus voltage limits, line power flows, transformer tap positions, etc., for optimum dispatch adjustment, resulting in a secure solution. In this paper, with the integration of solar thermal power plant, the total generation cost is reduced. The suggested method is tested by applying it to the standard IEEE 14 bus test system. The findings of the UC, demonstrated in both the presence and absence of STPP, show the method’s efficiency. We propose a mathematical programming-based approach with alternative current optimal power flow (ACOPF) network constraints, to optimize the unit commitment problem.