Security-constrained unit commitment with flexible operating modes

The electricity industry throughout the world, which has long been dominated by vertically integrated utilities, is facing enormous challenges. To enhance the competition in electricity industry, vertically integrated utilities are evolving into a distributed and competitive industry in which market forces drive the price of electricity and possibly reduce the net cost of supplying electrical loads through increased competition. To excel in the competition, generation companies (GENCOs) will acquire additional generating units with flexible operating capability which allows a timely response to the continuous changes in power system conditions. This dissertation considers the short-term scheduling of generating units with flexible modes of operation in security-constrained unit commitment (SCUC). Among the units considered in this study are combined cycle units, fuel switching/blending units, photovoltaic/battery system, pumped-storage units, and cascaded hydro units. The proposed security-constrained unit commitment solution will include a detailed model of transmission system which could impact the short-term scheduling of units with flexible operation modes.