A Multi-Criteria Approach for Evaluating Voltage Regulation Characteristics Facilitating Flexible Operations of Fossil-Fueled Power Generators

Conventional fossil-fueled power generators are one of flexibility options to accommodate the ever increasing penetration of fluctuating renewable energy whereas their capability constraints are not negligible. A multi-criteria approach is proposed in this paper for evaluating voltage regulation characteristics of fossil-fueled power generators to facilitate their flexible operations. First, an evaluation index system is established accounting for three vital criteria including steady-state performance, dynamic performance, and transient performance of the excitation system. Second, Bayesian BWM and CRITIC methods are used to determine respectively each index’s subjective and objective weights in which the game theory is leveraged to obtain the combined weights. Finally, PROMETHEE II is exploited to rank candidate generators based on the preference functions. The proposed multi-criteria approach is tested on an example system to verify its feasibility and effectiveness. The generator with balanced performance in all aspects prevails in the evaluation of the voltage regulation characteristics.