Thermal Units Commitment Integrated with Reactive Power Scheduling for the Smart Grid Considering Voltage Constraints

Abstract

Abstract Nowadays, deregulation and liberalization in the power market has increased the competition in the retail power sectors. As a result, power companies need to reduce the operational cost and maximize profits by operating generators with high efficiency. On the other hand, the all electric residences are increasing, so controllable loads such as the electric water heater, heat pump and electric vehicle are being introduced to the power systems. The conventional system does not operate using thermal units with controllable loads in a coordinated manner. Therefore, the smart grid has become very popular in all over the world. This paper focuses on the reactive power scheduling of controllable loads, and determines the optimal operation of thermal units by satisfying the voltage constraints. The proposed method can satisfy the voltage constraint and reduce the rate of the power cost for a power system. The optimal control algorithm has been determined by the Tabu search method. Simulation results verify the proposed method and validate the performance and effectiveness of the control algorithm applied to the controllable loads and batteries.