PLANNING-MODEL FOR SMALL POWER PRODUCING FACILITIES BASED ON THE GAUSSIAN DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION

As a result of a law passed by the US Congress called the Public Utili ty Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), small power producing facilities g ained considerable flexibility compared with utilities. This paper pre sents an optimization technique for the planning of a small power prod ucing facility when it operates in parallel with a local utility. The model formulation is based on the analytical production costing model. It determines the on-site generation capacity, the contractual amount of power purchased from the utility, the number of generating units i n the on-site generation facility, and the optimal scheduling of the s mall power producing facility subject to spot prices and reliability c onstraints.