Reengineering of Systems Operation: A solution to the challenges

Abstract:- The absence of central coordination in deregulated electricity markets sets a new range of challenges to their organization and functioning. Although a lot of academic research has been done in the recent years on these topics, contributions and discussions tend to stay within a single field (economics, systems analysis, policy analysis...). This paper (presented in two parts) aims at providing a framework for researchers of different fields to focus on the crucial issues, in the coordination problem. The fundamental factors in the operation of electrical power systems, at a macro level, are distribution of the operation parameters over vast areas, dominance of human factors and high dimensionality of the problem. Contemporary power system operation in vertically integrated utilities is based on the idea of a central dispatch office (CDO) relying heavily on SCADA for transportation of data to the CDO. The data arriving in the CDO is although useful for system stability, is of little value for the short term economic operation. Interconnection of units has increased the state space to the level of combinatorial explosiveness. Recent development of multiple fuel plants as well as deregulation of electricity market has added to the dominance of the human factor. Looking at the roots, the problem of economic operation of power systems is primarily that of decision management. The deregulation of electric power industry since 1992 has rendered it just more complex. As the new market environment is still in its evolution process it is time to raise fundamental and radical steps to make the system operation more manageable. Emerging information technologies (IT) can help in addressing these issues more effectively. Preliminary research with encouraging results has already been presented in a doctora