A probabilistic approach to generation maintenance scheduler with network constraints

Most generating unit maintenance scheduling packages consider the preventiv e maintenance schedule of generating units over a one or two year operation al planning period in order to minimize the total operating cost while sati sfying system energy requirements and maintenance constraints. In a global maintenance scheduling problem, we propose to consider network constraints and generating unit outages in generation maintenance scheduling. The inclu sion of network constraints in generating unit maintenance will increase th e complexity of the problem, so we decompose the global generator schedulin g problem into a master problem and sub-problems using Benders decompositio n. At the first stage, a master problem is solved to determine a solution f or maintenance schedule decision variables. In the second stage, sub-proble ms are solved to minimize operating costs while satisfying network constrai nts and generators' forced outages. Benders cuts based on the solution of t he sub-problem are introduced to the master problem for improving the exist ing solution. The iterative procedure continues until an optimal or near op timal solution is found. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved .