Unit commitment with bidirectional ramping constraints of flexibility retrofit thermal power unit

Flexibility retrofits of thermal power units have been widely implemented to improve power system balancing. These retrofits enable operation below the regular minimum output, known as deep peak regulation, to accommodate increasing renewable energy integration. Due to the inherent characteristics of thermal power units, ramp-up rates and ramp-down rates generally differ. Existing studies often overlook this difference by assuming equal ramping rates. To bridge this gap, this paper systematically models and analyses bidirectional ramping constraints in unit commitment (UC) models, providing a more accurate and realistic representation of the ramping process. Specifically, this paper proposes three innovative bidirectional ramping models. The first is the all-period fixed bidirectional ramping (AFBR) model, which assumes a constant ramp rate across all periods. The second model is the interperiod dynamic bidirectional ramping (InterDBR) model, which captures variations in ramping rates across different peak regulation states, including deep peak regulation with oil (DPRO), deep peak regulation (DPR), and regular peak regulation (RPR). These ramping rate adjustments are restricted to interperiod scheduling periods. The third is the intraperiod dynamic bidirectional ramping (IntraDBR) model, which considers transitions between DPRO, DPR, and RPR within an intraperiod scheduling period, thereby reflecting actual operational conditions of the unit. We validate the effectiveness of the proposed bidirectional ramping models on the IEEE 118-bus system and a real-world Ningxia Power Grid system. Results demonstrate that bidirectional ramping models more accurately and effectively support dispatch scheduling decisions, improving system security and economic efficiency.