Minimal system regulation and its value in a changing industry

This paper provides a summary of our framework for minimal regulation required at the interconnected system level in response to sustained deviations in system demand from its scheduled values. It is proposed to provide decentralized fast fringe control for frequency quality only in response to random fluctuation in system demand, and not to regulate fast deviations in tie-line flows. A particular modeling and control design approach is described that could be used to implement this idea. It is shown that this control design leads to improved dynamic performance and economic efficiency over the present regulation. Most important, the approach simplifies the picture of a very complex system by extracting only relevant information at each level of hierarchy. This is essential for allocating charges to specific market participants in an efficient way. The framework is illustrated in the context of real power/frequency control on the IEEE 39 bus system.