A novel method for maintenance scheduling of generating units considering the demand side

This paper proposes a novel competitive mechanism for maintenance scheduling of generating units in the deregulated environment. In restructured power systems, the objective function of power producers is to maximize their benefits, and the aim of the Independent System Operator (ISO) is to increase the reliability throughout the year as much as possible. Therefore, there are two objective functions for finding an optimal maintenance schedule in the deregulated environment. The main contribution of this paper is considering the condition of demand side in the maintenance scheduling of generating units. In this scheme, authority of the maintenance scheduling has been granted to the ISO. The proposed method schedules the outage windows of generating units to attain maximum producers' benefits and maximum annual social welfare. This method is tested in a bilateral energy market, and the IEEE-RTS system is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.