Power Dispatching

at Old Dominion
Case 6.2

John Chavez, Maclain Pfeiffer, Kyle

Schryver, Linlin Yamaguchi
 Balancing Power Demand and Production
- Power companies must balance the production of power with the demand for power in
real time (and must account for weather changes)
- Usually demand forecast a seven day window, is referred to as the company’s
“load-profile”
- Additional demands for power above the base-load must be met by turning on other
generators, or “peakers”
- Different peakers use different types of fuel, thus their operating costs per
megawatt(MW) also differs
- Every day that a generator is on, there is a fixed and variable cost that must be paid
 Old Dominion Power Company Add. Info
- Old Dominion Power Company provides electrical power, and their peak load
profile is as follows:

Day 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Load (in 4,300 3,700 3,900 4,000 4,700 4,800 3,600

MW’s)

- ODP currently has three peaking generators offline that are available to meet help
this load

Generator Location Startup Cost Cost per Day Maximum MW

Capacity per Day

New River $800 $200+ $5 per MW 2,100

Galax $1,000 $300+ $4 per MW 1,900

James River $700 $250+ $7 per MW 3,000

 Old Dominion Power Company Set Up
Step 1: Decision Variables
where i= day j = generator
Wij= Amount of Megawatts generated
Rij = 0 = The Generator is on
1 = The Generator is not on
0 = There is a Startup Cost
Sij = 1 = There is no Startup Cost
Step 2: Objective Function, Minimize Cost:
Day 1: R11(200 + 5w11) + S11(800) + R12(300
+ 4w12) + S12(1000) + R13(250 + 7w13) +
S13(700)
Step 3: Constraints Maximum MW Capacity
Startup Constraints: Constraints:
Generator 1: Ri,1 - Ri-1,1 - Si,1 <= 0 W11 <= 2100
W12 <= 1900
Generator 2: Ri,2 - Ri-1,2 - Si,2 <= 0 W13 <= 3000
Generator 3: Ri,3 - Ri-1,3 - Si,3 <= 0 Non-Negative Constraints
Wi,j >=0
Demand Constraints:
Day 1: W11 + W12 + W13 >= 4,300
Day 2: W21 + W22 + W23 >= 3,700
Day 3: W31 + W32 + W33 >= 3,900
Day 4: W41 + W42 + W43 >= 4,000
Day 5: W51 + W52 + W53 >= 4,700
Day 5: W61 + W62 + W63 >= 4,800
Day 6: W61 + W62 + W63 >= 3,600
Optimal Solution
Excel Set-Up
Solver Set-Up
Excel Solution
Gurobi Solution
Part 4:
Suppose ODP can sometimes buy power from a competitor. How
much should ODP be willing to pay to acquire 300 MW of power on
day 1?

➢ Impact
By buying power, ODP only has to produce 4,000 MW on day 1
(4,300 - 300 = 4000)

➢ Saved cost (neutral between buy/produce)

$700 (startup cost) + $ 250 (daily running cost) + $7 (per MW
cost) * 300 MW = $3050

➢ Solution
ODP should be willing to pay up to $3050 to a competitor to
acquire 300 MW of power on day 1
Part 5:
What concerns, if any, would you have about implementing this
plan?

➢ Implementing the solution to 4 relies on a deliverable

from a competitor during peak times

Since power demand is an estimate in practice, demand

could peak higher than 4,300 and would not be covered by
the competitor.

If ODP has the third generator running already and demand

peaks higher than expected, ODP will be able to meet it
without much additional cost simply by increasing output
from James River.
Impact: why does this matter?

● The modern world depends on electricity

● Power management works behind-the-scenes to
supply us with constant energy
● Consider a society with poor power dispatching
management….
Impact: when power
dispatching goes wrong
● South Africa's Eskom does not have enough energy
supply
○ Plants have low RHS values for their MW
capacity
● Solution: "load shedding" - intermittent power cuts
● Utility function: maximizing energy supplied rather
than minimizing costs
● Eskom's additional decision variables:
○ Which neighborhoods do we shut off?
○ How long do we keep power off at a time?
Impact: be thankful this isn't us...
Any questions?