Reserve constrained economic dispatch with prohibited operating zones

A method is described for solving the reserve constrained economic dispatch problem when some of the online generating units have prohibited operating zone(s). For a unit with prohibited zone(s), the zone(s) divide the operating region between the minimum generation limit (Pmin) and the maximum generation limit (Pmax) into disjoint convex subregions. These disjoint subregions form a nonconvex decisions space and the associated economic dispatch problem is thus a nonconvex optimization problem. As a result, the conventional Lagrangian relaxation (LR) approach (e.g. the λ-δ iterative approach) cannot be applied directly. The method proposed decomposes the nonconvex decision space into a small number of subsets such that each of the associated dispatch problems is either infeasible or one that can be directly solved via the conventional LR approach. Based on the decomposition, the optimal solution is the least costly one among all the feasible solutions of the associated dispatch problems. Examples are also given to illustrate the proposed method