Transmission congestion relief solutions by load management

In deregulated and competitive power systems, congestion in the transmission system can pose a major problem that is not only a physical threat to the security but also results in severe price hikes due to limited generation resources in particular local areas. One possible solution to such a problem is to find a customer who will volunteer to lower its consumption of electricity when transmission system congestion occurs. By lowering the consumption, the congestion will disappear resulting in a significant reduction in prices based on bus marginal costs. A strategy to decide who will be the most likely volunteer and how much load should be curtailed is proposed here. We have conducted simulation tests on a modified IEEE 14 bus system using security-constrained optimal power flow. The anticipated effect of the proposed congestion relief solution is to encourage consumers to be elastic against high prices of electricity as well as to discourage suppliers from exercising strategic market power to manipulate prices by taking advantage of congestion. Hence, the proposed congestion relief procedure could eventually protect all customers from high electricity prices in a deregulated environment.