Optimal scheduling and dispatch of pumped hydro — Thermal — Wind systems

The following piece of work is dedicated to solving the unit commitment/optimal scheduling problem under high levels of wind power penetration and under the presence of a pumped hydro storage facility. This task has been divided into two parts; a) Baseline scheduling and b) Reserve scheduling, where baseline scheduling meets the day-ahead forecast of load and wind energy, while reserve scheduling meets the variation in load and wind energy from the baseline schedule. A Markov chain transition matrix has been used to quantify both upward and downward reserves. This paper reveals the results of considering different aspects (fuel cost, reliability, emissions and reservoir volume), in the objective function. Also a Monte-Carlo analysis of the results are performed to understand the probabilistic nature of the problem. Using frequency distribution of load and wind data, different cases have been analyzed to conclude a probabilistic (or fuzzy) schedule, which not only answers the question of ON/OFF status but can also imply time windows for maintenance scheduling and turn-down activities.