EAPSI: Centralized planning of electricity generation in the New Zealand electricity market

Pielow Amy, Columbus OH

Investigators

Abstract

Efficiently generating electricity is a complex task, made more complex as renewable resources are added, new companies enter the market, and there is more focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. New models better equipped to handle these emerging complexities need to be developed. This project will develop such a model, which will include scheduling of both thermal and hydro resources under different market conditions, for the New Zealand electricity market. This work will be completed in collaboration with Dr. Andy Philpott, at the University of Auckland. A better understanding of the interplay between these resources can lead to more reliable systems, lower costs, and greater utilization of sustainable technologies. Although the New Zealand electricity market is unique in its operation and available resources, the mathematical techniques are universal. Models that will be developed are applicable to not only other similar systems, but to regional electricity markets in general. In particular, this research will focus on the short-term scheduling of thermal and hydro resources in centralized and decentralized contexts. These models will include accurate representations of the cascading river-chain systems, which will be co-optimized with thermal generation for a day-ahead planning horizon. In such a model, both stochasticity of prices and renewable resource availability must be considered, which motivates the use of decomposition algorithms to exploit problem structure. The newly developed model will be compared to the self-dispatch system currently in place. This NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the Royal Society of New Zealand.