Quasi-static economic dispatch using dynamic programming with an improved zoom feature

A quasi-static economic dispatch method is presented based on dynamic programming (DP) employing an improved zoom feature (DPZF). The DPZF method yields significant savings in computation time and memory compared with traditional DP methods, exhibiting a speed-up ratio of approximately 25:1. Other benefits of the DPZF method include no restrictions on the ‘shape’ (i.e., monotonic characteristic) of the incremental fuel cost curves, ease of incorporating forbidden operating regions of unit output, and ease of incorporating penalty factors for representing the effects of transmission losses on dispatch. In the context of this paper, the application of DPZF is directed solely towards providing the initial solution for a dynamic economic dispatch (DED) method. However, DPZF is also useful as a static base point economic dispatch calculation for real-time AGC.