A quantitative study of the optimal control model for an electric power generating system

The importance of electric power in today's world cannot be overemphasized for it is the key energy source for industrial, commercial and domestic activities. Its availability in the right quantity is essential to advancement of civilization. In fact, a direct relationship can be shown to exist between (electric) power availability and per capital of a nation. The economy of a nation is easily identified with the amount of electricity it supplies. The advanced economy of the world generates a lot electric power and hence they witness rapid economical and industrial development. Third-world countries often witness epileptic or unstable supply of electric power. It is common knowledge that to have constant and stable electricity supply, a country needs to invest in its power generation. In the light of this, an optimal control model is proposed herein for the electric power generating system. In the model, the power generated and the capital investment describe the state of the system while the generator capacity is chosen as the control. The goal is to minimize the cost of generation and maximize the generator output without violating operating limits on the equipment. In this study, we consider the minimization of the total operating cost incurred in the process of generating the required quantity of electric power as our specific objective. A quantitative treatment of the optimal control model of the electric power generating system is then undertaken using real-life data. The result of the analysis indicate that the model gave an actual representation of the system under consideration.