ECONOMIC-DISPATCH WITH NETWORK AND RAMPING CONSTRAINTS VIA INTERIOR-POINT METHODS

We describe an approach to the economic dispatch problem that combines both time-separated constraints (e.g., demand and network flow) and i nter-temporal constraints (e.g., ramping) into a single optimization p roblem that can be solved efficiently by interior point methods. By in cluding generator ramping limits as well as network line flow constrai nts, both economic and security issues are treated simultaneously, avo iding nd hoc post processing. We present several test cases, including dispatching six generators on the IEEE 30-bus network over 168 hours with line flow and ramping constraints. Computational effort as measur ed by iteration counts or execution time (CPU sees) varies only modest ly with problem size.