Flexibility Measurement of Power System Generation for Real-Time Applications Using Analytical Hierarchy Process

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new technique to measure the flexibility of power system generation in real-time. The proposed technique uses the analytical hierarchy process to evaluate the flexibility by combining the essential power sources features. The flexibility features of minimum power, ramp-rate capability, start-up time and the controllability are expressed as a single indexed time-series. Effective flexibility measurement techniques are required because of the recent increasing penetration of variable renewable energy resources in the power systems. The proposed flexibility index copes with the complexity and difficulty of the high variability power sources by taking the index into account in the power dispatching process. Simulation studies are conducted to validate the effectiveness of the new flexibility measurement technique. The results show the success of the flexibility measurement index to represent the real value of the flexibility of each power source and also, the overall system flexibility. The measurements help the power system operators to take the right dispatching decision during the optimal set-points calculations of all sources in the electric power grid.