Economic dispatch with generation contingency constraints

This paper presents a new model of the generation contingency constrained economic dispatch problem and proposes a method for its solution. The operating policy of Northern Ireland Electricity was the basis for the formulation, and software was implemented to support it. Since the Northern Ireland Electricity power system operates in relative isolation, the operating security criteria are rather stringent. In particular, it is required that loss of generation of any generating unit in the system must be covered by fast, 3 or 30 second generation reserves on other units in the system. The fast response unit reserve capabilities are represented by concave curves. The solution method is based a nonlinear version of Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition principle. Numerical results are presented.