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In the past decade, enhancing the reliability of distribution networks by means of optimal switch placement has attracted much attention. In the case of failures in a distribution feeder, such disconnect switches will isolate the faulted section, and the customers downstream of the faulted point can be supplied by neighboring feeders through tie lines. Nevertheless, such reserve branches not only might experience failures themselves but also may not even exist prior to the switch placement. Accordingly, this paper presents a mathematical-programming-based model for the concurrent placement of disconnect switches and tie lines in the distribution networks to enhance the service reliability,... 

The judicious placement of disconnecting switches is an efficient means to enhance the reliability of distribution networks. Aiming at optimizing the investment in these switches, this paper presents a mathematical programming-based model considering the installation of remote-controlled and manual switches at various locations in the distribution network. The proposed model not only yields the optimal location and type of switches in the main feeders but also specifies the optimal type of tie switches, i.e., backup switches at the reserve connection points. Incentive reliability regulation in the form of a reward-penalty scheme is incorporated into the proposed model to take the... 

Increasing penetration of renewable energy sources with intermittent generation calls for further flexibility requirements for efficient as well as the safe operation of power systems. Considering the significant growth of distributed energy resources in distribution systems, a promising approach to fulfill such requirements is to deploy local flexibility sources at the distribution level. Nonetheless, due to the monopoly nature of electricity distribution business, effective regulations are required to direct distribution companies toward fulfilling such goals. Accordingly, this paper aims at proposing various policies to motivate distribution companies to enhance the flexibility of their... 

In this paper, the problem of frequency-constrained electricity market (FCEM) is modeled in the presence of renewable energy sources (RESs) and price-maker players by using equilibrium problem with equilibrium constraints formulation. It is worth mentioning that due to the intermittency of RESs, the FCEM problem in the presence of price-maker players becomes more imperative as stability of power system frequency is a public good and the free-rider problem arises. Moreover, as players of FCEM do not know their rivals' objective functions, the problem is modeled based on Bayesian game theory. The FCEM problem is converted into a game of complete but imperfect information under the common prior... 

Energy hubs, an important component of future energy networks employing distributed demand-side management, can play a key role in enhancing the efficiency and reliability of power grids. In power grids, energy hub operators need to optimally schedule the consumption, conversion, and storage of available resources based on their own utility functions. In sufficiently large networks, scheduling an individual hub can affect the utility of the other energy hubs. In this paper, the interaction between energy hubs is modeled as a congestion game. Each energy hub operator (player) participates in a dynamic energy pricing market and tries to maximize his/her own payoff when satisfying energy... 

Integrated transmission expansion planning (TEP) and generation expansion planning (GEP) with Wind Farms (WFs) is addressed in this paper. The optimal number of expanded lines, the optimal capacity of WFs installed capacity, and the optimal capacity of wind farms lines (WFLs) are determined through a new TEP optimization model. Furthermore, the optimum capacity additions including conventional generating units is obtained in the proposed model. The Benders decomposition approach is used for solving the optimization problem, including a master problem and two sub-problems with internal scenario analysis. In order to reduce the computational burden of the multi-year and multi-objective... 

A major challenge for designers of competitive electricity markets is to devise market rules that limit the capability of electricity producers to exercise market power. Market power is the ability of a firm owning generation assets to raise the market price by its bidding behavior and to profit from this price increase. In addition, an important plan of market monitoring units in long term and competition policy framework is to persuade the participants to bid prices near to their marginal costs. Therefore, estimation of marginal cost function is important in way that Regulatory use it to increase competition in electricity markets. Bid price of the power plant to the power market contains... 

The best energy transfer scenario (BETS) is a situation under which the optimum transfer of power (or energy) from the electric utility to an electric power consumer is achieved. Such a scenario is important because it is used as a reference point to evaluate how efficient the load operates. The index of power factor (PF) is used to quantify such an efficiency. The closer the PF to unity corresponds to more efficient performance of the load. This paper is to show that the conventional definition of the BETS is inadequate and results in an unfair value for the PF unless the transmission line is perfect and lossless (which is an unrealistic condition). The paper also investigates an... 

Procurement of optimum available transfer capability (ATC) in the restructured electricity industry is a crucial challenge with regards to open access to transmission network. This paper presents an approach to determine the optimum location and optimum capacity of TCSC in order to improve ATC as well as voltage profile. Real genetic algorithm (RGA) associated with analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy sets are implemented as a hybrid heuristic technique in this paper to optimize such a complicated problem. The effectiveness of the proposed methodology is examined through different case studies. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved  

Today the electric utility industry is being restructured from monopoly and regulated structure to competitive and deregulated structure. Changes in electricity markets, in technology, economics and regulatory structures have created a new interest in small-scale generation and efficiency resources, dispersed throughout the lower voltage networks. Many reasons have been developed and encouraged using DG (Distributed Generation) in different countries such as power system restructuring, DG technologies advances and price increases. The most important problems of many developing countries is the high cost of finance and limited access to financial resources because of the electric industry is... 

Stirling engines operate in a variety of temperatures and the electric power production via dish Stirling systems could be considered as an appropriate alternative for high-temperature solar concentrator energy harvesting systems. To this end, by performing various studies and analyses on the engine, Stirling cycle, and heat exchangers while utilizing the solar energy as the input thermal energy of the Stirling engine, parameters with the highest effect on the output power and engine stability are detected and considered as optimization variables. In this case, output power, thermal efficiency, and economic evaluation are taken to be the three suitable objective functions for multi-objective... 

This paper presents a new approach for unit commitment (UC); where a large scale wind power exists and the wind speed has a fuzzy characteristic; by using particle swarm optimization method (PSO). In this approach, the system reserve requirements, the requirement of having a load balance, and the wind power availability constraints are realized. A proper modeling of these constraints is an important issue in power system scheduling. Since these constraints are "fuzzy" in nature, any crisp treatment of them in this problem may lead to over conservative solutions. In this paper, a fuzzy optimization-based method is developed to solve power system UC problem with a fuzzy objective function and... 

Ancillary services are generally referred as those services other than energy that are essential for ensuring reliable operation of electric power systems. This paper discuses different approaches for procuring required ancillary services for power system security. Furthermore, various design options for ancillary service markets are studied. Such markets are typically operated by an independent system operator (ISO). Different characteristics of each design option are also explained in this paper. The two most important factors which will be discussed for each design option are the price reversal phenomenon and total procurement cost. © 2007 IEEE  

This paper proposes a method for unit commitment in restructured power systems with high penetration of wind farms. As wind is an intermittent source of energy and can not be predicted with high accuracy, reliability of wind farms compare to conventional power plants is lower. By increasing penetration of wind farms in generation system, reliability of power system will decrease. Therefore, reliability constraint should be added to unit commitment (UC) formulation. On the other hand, wind is a green source of energy; additionally environmental crisis is very important issue in the 21st century. By adding emission constraint to UC, wind energy will be valued. Both reliability and emission... 

In restructured and de-regulated power systems, generating companies (Gencos) are responsible for supplying electricity for both energy and reserve markets, which usually operate simultaneously. In this condition, the question is how much and for what price must each Genco generate for each market to maximize its profit, so this paper intends to answer to this question. In this paper, first, the combined energy and reserve markets are considered, and the Nash equilibrium points are determined. Then, the bidding strategies for each Genco at these points will be presented. The bids for the energy and 10 min spinning reserve (TMSR) markets are separated in the second stage, and again, the... 

This paper presents a practical reactive power valuation method, for the purpose of the reactive power pricing, in which the VAr value is decomposed into two components. These components are basically different from those already employed in the literature. Using a security constrained optimization model, the proposed scheme allocates two specific amounts of MW transactions to each generator as a dynamic reactive power source. One of these allocated amounts represents the contribution of the VAr resource to the shipment of active power, while the other one represents the contribution to the protection of the system against voltage instability. The final VAr value is derived using the... 

The participants in auction-based electricity markets need to take part in a competition way which operates based on the concept of supply and demand theory to buy or sell the electricity. However, to have a feasible market solution, reactive power services are necessary to support the transmission of power from generation to end-users. This paper presents a methodology for optimal reactive power procurement, consistent with the auction-based electricity market mechanism. The proposed reactive power market is run in subsequence of the primary electricity market, allowing active power modification in light of available transmission capacity and reactive power resources. The IEEE 30-bus test... 

To make the energy market reliable and transactions deliverable, transmission owners must provide required ancillary services that are critical to ensure transmission open access, and to maintain an acceptable level of power system security. Spinning reserve is one of the most important ancillary services required to maintain system reliability in case of occurring a contingency. By definition, spinning reserve is the unloaded section of synchronized generation that is able to respond immediately to serve load. Studies indicate that spinning reserve requirements have significant impacts on the energy market. A new spinning reserve market structure is proposed in this paper to best utilize... 

This paper introduces advanced SVC. Advanced SVC has been simulated with regard to reactive power and unbalancy compensation. Then, a new space has been chosen for state equation based on combination of d-q and real space to positive - negative. By decoupling of active, reactive powers and positive, negative sequences and using decoupling circuit, the facility of each sequence control, by control circuit will be provided independently. After advanced SVC modeling, the load - which is electrification railway system - will be simulated. So a sample of electric locomotive in Iran has been investigated and simulated. By using the load model, the advanced SVC has been used for compensation of... 

We study the application of cooperative control and game theoretic approaches to wind farm optimization. The conventional (greedy) wind farm control strategy seeks to individually maximize each turbine power. However, this strategy does not maximize the overall power production of wind farms due to the aerodynamic interactions (wake effect) between the turbines. We formulate the wind farm power optimization problem as an identical interest game which can also be used to solve other cooperative control problems. Two model-free learning algorithms are developed to obtain the optimal axial induction factors of the turbines and maximize power production. The algorithms are simulated for a...