Computational and economic limitations of dispatch operations in the next-generation power grid

We study the interactions between computational and economic performance of dispatch operations under highly dynamic environments. In particular, we discuss the need for extending the forecast horizon of the dispatch formulation in order to anticipate steep variations of renewable power and highly elastic loads. We present computational strategies to solve the increasingly larger optimization problems in real time. To illustrate the developments, we use a detailed dispatch model of the entire Illinois system with out-of-state wind generation.