Enrique Lobato Miguélez

A practical approach to solve power system constraints with application to the Spanish electricity market

The solution of power system constraints is an important issue that has to be addressed to achieve a fair operation of a competitive electricity market. In the Spanish electricity market, the System Operator (SO) is in charge of determining the technical feasibility of the generation dispatch provided by the Market Operator (MO). An optimal solution method of power system constraints in the Spanish market must take into account the connection of off-line units to solve both branch overloads and voltage constraints, the adjustment of voltage control resources, the solution of the postulated n-1 and n-2 contingencies with a preventive criteria and the coupling of the solution in the 24 hourly scenarios due to the start-up cost of nonconnected units. This paper details the management of power system constraints in the Spanish market, and contains a comprehensive review of solution methods of power system constraints. In addition, the paper proposes a novel approach to solve Spanish power system constraints that overcomes the limitations of existing methods, by decoupling the solution of branch overloads and voltage constraints.

On the Assignment of Voltage Control Ancillary Service of Generators in Spain

The aim of the Spanish voltage control ancillary service is the minimization of the transmission losses while keeping the system away from voltage instability. The latter target can be achieved maintaining an adequate voltage profile in normal operating condition and assuring that generators exhibit enough reactive margins that guarantee that the system voltages will remain under acceptable values in case of contingencies. The service has been designed in Spain to be partially mandatory and partially subject to payment based on market-driven rules and performance evaluation. In the annual time scope, the optional reactive offers submitted by the service suppliers are selected analyzing a number of forecasted scenarios. This paper explains the implementation of the Spanish voltage control ancillary service (VCAS) that is provided by generators in the annual time scope. For this purpose, a mixed-integer linear programming optimal power flow (OPF) is used. Reactive bids of generators are modeled within each scenario by modifying the reactive limits of the generators. The use of the proposed OPF in the assignment of the voltage control ancillary service is explained and illustrated using actual scenarios of the Spanish power system

Sizing and Controller Setting of Ultracapacitors for Frequency Stability Enhancement of Small Isolated Power Systems

This paper studies the impact of the size and controller settings of an ultracapacitor (UC) on frequency stability. Underfrequency load-shedding (UFLS) schemes play an important role in protecting the system against frequency instability and their performance is used as a measure for the enhancement of frequency stability thanks to the UC. To this end, a simplified but still accurate model of the UC is developed. In addition, a meaningful procedure is proposed to size the UCs power and energy storage capacities in function of the system parameters and operation constraints in order to improve frequency stability. Finally, the impact of the UC on the UFLS scheme is studied for many generation dispatch scenarios and for all possible single generating unit outages of a Spanish isolated power system. An analysis with respect to the UCs control parameters and its size in terms of power and energy storage capacities is carried out, too. Appropriate control parameter settings improve the UCs impact on frequency stability.

Performance Evaluation of Start-Up Decisions of Rapid-Start Units for AGC

Generating units, participating in the secondary frequency control of a control area, are usually spinning units already connected to the network and operating outside their range of optimal performance. This paper deals with an alternative method of providing secondary frequency control called Rapid-Start (RS). It consists in assigning a regulation band to several off-line units (RS units) which are capable of being started and connected rapidly, therefore allowing the online units to operate closer to their nominal power. As RS operation may have economic benefits, an appropriate algorithm to start up an RS unit needs to be developed. This paper proposes a methodology to evaluate, compare, and choose the most appropriate RS algorithm among the ones developed for a certain AGC control area. An optimization model provides a reference by determining the hypothetically ideal start-ups and shut-downs of RS units. In addition, the definition of performance indexes to evaluate, compare, and choose the different RS algorithms is proposed. The proposed methodology is illustrated for a secondary frequency control zone within the Spanish power system by using real data signals.