Chapter 11 Evolutionary Computation Methods for Fuzzy Decision Making on Load Dispatch Problems

This chapter introduces basic concepts relating to a day-ahead market in a power system. A load dispatch model considers a ramp rate and valve-point-loading effects. An environ-ment/economic load dispatch model is presented to handle uncertainty factors. The model provides theoretical foundations for the research on operations and decision making in the electric power market. To solve load dispatch problems from day-ahead markets in power systems, a hybrid evolutionary computation method with a quasi-simplex technique, a weight point method for multi-objective programming, and a fuzzy-number-ranking-based optimization method for fuzzy multi-objective non-linear programming are developed. 11.1 Models for Day-ahead Markets The load dispatch in a spot market is one of the kernel problems in an electric power market. It not only relates to the benefits of every participant in the market, but is also a key issue to assure safety, reliability of the power system and order operation of the electric power market. Although a lot of achievements have been obtained, there are still many problems to be solved for the power market operation. This section introduces the basic concepts of electric power markets and builds up two load dispatch models for a day-ahead market