Allocation of spinning reserve among generating units using a hybrid deterministic/probabilistic approach

Deregulation and economic competition in power systems have forced utilities to operate closer and closer to their limits. At the same time, power systems have increased in size and complexity. Both factors increase the risk of major power outages. Under new restructuring circumstances, spinning reserves, as a major part of ancillary services, are needed to be procured, priced, and fairly allocated among generating units. A hybrid deterministic/probabilistic approach is presented in this paper to allocate spinning reserve among the committed units. This method is designated as well-being approach in which the degree of system well being in the responding capability of generation systems is evaluated. The overall well being of a generation system in terms of its responding capability is identified as being healthy, marginal and at risk. Using a least costly adjusted procedure the system spinning reserve is allocated among the committed units to satisfy the pre-specified operating criteria. The response criteria could be a specified response risk, an acceptable level of response health or both depending on the required operating conditions. The technique and concepts are examined in this paper by application to the IEEE reliability test system (IEEE-RTS).