A study of the reserve allocation problem by a mixed integer approach

Electric utilities have a responsibility to supply electric energy continuously with high quality, and at an economic price. In power system operation, it is important to keep enough reserve ability to cover sudden demand change, such as forecasting error, generator losses and so on. Since each generator has different cost characteristics, it is necessary to decide the optimal generator combination to satisfy both reserve and economic requirements. In this paper, we outline the reserve allocation problem and optimise costs by using a mixed integer programming method. The objective function is defined as the sum of synchronised reserve and standing reserve cost. Since the original problem has nonlinearity on the load duration curve, the successive linearisation technique is applied to solve this problem. A prototype program was developed to solve this problem and applied to the test system.