On Robust Tie-Line Scheduling in Multi-Area Power Systems

The tie-line scheduling problem in a multi-area power system seeks to optimize tie-line power flows across areas that are independently operated by different system operators (SOs). In this paper, we leverage the theory of multi-parametric linear programming to propose algorithms for optimal tie-line scheduling, respectively, within a deterministic and a robust optimization framework. Aided by a coordinator, the proposed methods are proved to converge to the optimal schedule within a finite number of iterations. A key feature of the proposed algorithms, besides their finite step convergence, is that SOs do not reveal their dispatch cost structures, network constraints, or natures of uncertainty sets to the coordinator. The performance of the algorithms is evaluated using several power system examples.