Title: ELECTRICAL ENERGY SYSTEM OPTIMAL OPERATIONS PLANNING THROUGH DECOMPOSITION TECHNIQUES
Reference: DGICYT PB95-0472

Duration: 07/96 - 07/99

Principal Investigator: A. J. Conejo.

Researchers: A. J. Conejo, J. M. Arroyo, N. Alguacil, N. Jiménez, J. Pérez Ruiz.

Title of the project: MARKET-CLEARING ALGORITHMS FOR COMPETITIVE ELECTRICITY MARKETS

Reference: CICYT DPI 2000-0654

Financing: CICYT

Participants: Universidad de Castilla – La Mancha

Duration: 12/00 - 12/03

Principal Investigator: A. J. Conejo

Researchers: A. J. Conejo, J. Contreras, J. M. Arroyo

Summary: The purpose of this project is the development of novel procedures and algorithms to address, under competitive rules, a complex scheduling problem: the assignment of production quantities to electric power units. Two basic objectives are considered. Firstly, to develop a physically and economically based market clearing mechanism which preserves participant independence and produces solutions with good properties from the microeconomics and optimality points of view, for both, perfect and oligopolistic markets. Secondly, to develop a market simulator algorithm to study, analyse, and propose modifications to the market clearing mechanism. It is also the objective of this project to complete two Ph. D. theses, currently in the final stages of their respective researchers, and the development of a third one already started. Industry sectors with large scheduling problems will benefit from the results of the proposed research work. The electricity sector will be the direct beneficiary.

Title of the project: OPTIMAL RESPONSE TO THE ELECTRICITY MARKET BY PRODUCERS, RETAILERS & CONSUMERS.

Reference: CICYT DPI 2003-01362

Financing: CICYT

Participants: Universidad de Castilla – La Mancha

Duration: 12/03 - 12/06

Principal Investigator: A. J. Conejo

Researchers: A. J. Conejo, J. Contreras, J. M. Arroyo, N. Alguacil, F. Milano, R. García, R. Espínola

Summary: The aim of this project is to develop analytical and computational tools to help power producers, retailers and consumers to optimize their operations within an electricity market framework. The development of those tools constitutes challenging research work. Moreover, the international power engineering scientific community is particularly  interested in this research, as it can be seen in major technical journals and conferences. The research work needed to develop the tools mentioned will allow completing three Ph. D. theses and making progress in other two. Particularly, the research  to be carried out includes tools for energy markets, ancillary service markets and technical constraint market. This research also includes decision-making tools for selecting bilateral and financial contracts. Finally, it should be emphasized that to optimize the operation of power producer, retailers and consumers contributes to a higher social welfare.

Title of the project: PRODUCTION, PROCUREMENT AND TRADING STRATEGIES IN ELECTRICITY MARKETS VIA STOCHASTIC PROGRAMMING

Reference: CICYT DPI 2006-08001

Financing: CICYT

Participants: Universidad de Castilla – La Mancha

Duration:  10/06-09/09

Principal Investigator: A. J. Conejo

Researchers: A. J. Conejo, F. Milano, R. García, R. Zárate, M. Carrión, F. D. Galiana, I. Kockar

Summary: The medium- and short- term decision making models for electricity market agents developed during the last decade do not properly incorporate the uncertainty associated with electricity demand and price. This is mainly due to the complexities associated with the incorporation of such uncertainty. Therefore, we propose a research effort to rigorously treat uncertainty in decision making models for (i) production and contracting by producers, (ii) procurement by consumers and (iii) trading by marketers. This research effort will result in both better decision making models and improvements in  the requiered solution tecniques.

Title of the project: ANALYSIS OF POWER SYSTEMS VULNERABILITY TO DELIBERATE ATTACKS

Reference: CICYT DPI 2006-01501

Financing: CICYT.

Participants: Universidad de Castilla – La Mancha

Duration:  10/06-09/09

Principal Investigator:  J. M. Arroyo

Researchers: J. M. Arroyo, N. Alguacil, A. J. Conejo

Summary: Within the context of increasingly more frequent intentional attacks to strategic infrastructure, and recent blackouts throughout the world, and particularly in Europe and Spain, the aim of this project is to develop analytical and computational tools to analyze the vulnerability of power systems to deliberate attacks. The vulnerability assessment will be performed on (i) transmission networks, typically meshed, in which a deliberate attack may produce cascading outages over a large portion of the power system, and (ii) distribution networks around large urban centers, also meshed, wherein an intentional attack may interrupt the supply to a large number of consumers. The development of these tools constitutes challenging research work. Moreover, the international power engineering scientific community is particularly interested in this research, as can be seen in major technical journals and conferences. Particularly, the proposed research includes tools to help the operators of transmission and distribution networks to identify the most vulnerable components to deliberate attacks. This research also includes tools for a more secure network operation. Finally, it should be emphasized that the vulnerability of transmission and distribution networks has a significant impact on the power supply. Therefore, identifying the critical components of these networks for their subsequent reinforcement ultimately contributes to higher levels of social welfare.

Title of the project: INVESTMENT, PLANNING AND OPERATION OF ELECTRIC SYSTEMS WITH DISTRIBUTED GENERATION

Reference: CICYT ENE 2006-02664

Financing: CICYT

Participants: Universidad de Castilla – La Mancha

Duration:  10/06-09/09

Principal Investigator: J. Contreras

Researchers: J. Contreras, G. Gross, J. I. Muñoz, V. González

Summary: According to the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers –IEEE-, Distributed Generation (DG) is the generation of electricity using equipment that is small enough as compared to the big generation units, such that it can be connected almost anywhere in the network. We can also define DG as the generation and storage of electric energy at a small scale, as close as possible to the load, with the possibility to interact (buy and sell energy) using the grid. Due to the recent introduction of DG in electric networks, the hypothesis that the energy is only produced using large-scale units, that the flows are highly predictable, and that the distribution networks act passively is no longer valid. Thus, a new approach to the operation and planning of the system must take into account the new requirements imposed by the DG, as well as the role played by the private investors.To address all these issues, the aim of this project is to define investment infrastructure strategies as well as rules that can foster private investments in DG, to quantify the environmental benefits of DG, to define methods for the secure operation and storage of the energy produced with DG and to define capital investment models and criteria. We propose five different models that interact with each other as part of a common DG framework: an operation model, an energy storage model, an environmental model, a generation investment model and a network investment model in presence of DG. An array of tools consisting of mathematical programming methods, microeconomics models, statistical methods and planning techniques will be deployed throughout the project to achieve the proposed objectives.