A Game Theoretic Framework for Generation Maintenance Scheduling in Oligopolistic Electricity Markets

This paper studies the maintenance decisions of generating companies (GENCOs) which are fully engaged in oligopolistic electricity market. Maintenance decisions in an oligopolistic electricity market have a strategic function, because GENCOs usually have impacts on market prices through capacity outages. The main contribution of this paper is modeling a game theoretic framework to analyze strategic behaviors of GENCOs. Each GENCO tries to maximize its payoff by strategically making decisions, taking into account its rival GENCOs´ decisions. Cournot-Nash equilibrium is used for decision making on maintenance problem in Oligopolistic electricity market. The analytic framework presented in this paper enables joint assessment of maintenance and generation strategies; it also considers the regulation of ISO on GENCOs´ desired maintenance plan.