Application of Optimal Power Flow to Power System with Wind Power Plants

This paper demonstrates application of two optimization methods on the electric power system consisting of one large wind farm, two hydro power plants and two thermal power plants. First optimization algorithm deals only with cascaded hydro power plants in the system. The objective of the optimization is to find optimal dispatch (production) plan of two cascaded hydro power plants maximizing the profit from day ahead electricity market. Obtained dispatch plan together with the wind forecast are used as an input data for the second optimization problem - optimal power flow applied to the whole power system. Objective of the second optimization is to find optimal dispatch of the thermal power plants regarding to the hydro power plants dispatch plan and wind forecast. In order to take into account stochastic character of wind power plant production, optimal power flow for two additional scenarios is simulated. First, it is assumed that actual wind power plant production is 30% less than forecasted and in the second scenario it is assumed that actual wind power plant production is 30% higher than forecasted. In order to balance wind power output variation, one hydro power plant and two thermal power plants are used.