Reliability Constrained Day Ahead Unit Commitment with Optimal Spinning Reserve Allocation for Solar Integrated Power System

Unit commitment is becoming a complex problem with the increasing constraints due to the restructuring of power system and the escalation in inclusion of various types of Distributed Generation sources. These sources offer a significantly lower generation compared to the conventional sources. Also they pose synchronising problems with the grid since the electricity cannot be transmitted over long distances and thus they provide the localized consumption of energy. In this paper, unit commitment is performed with optimal spinning reserve allocation and the assessment of reliability in terms of loss of load, in the presence of solar integration into the power system. The ‘Loss Of Load Probability’ (LOLP) index is utilized for determining the level of reliability of the obtained results. The Spinning Reserve (SR) considered in the UC calculations, is a constant value and it is not varied with respect to the changes in solar generation. Here, the spinning reserve optimality is determined with respect to the changes in power injection due to the solar energy integration into the power system. Dynamic programming technique is applied on two systems (four generator and ten generator systems) and the results are compared with those obtained without the consideration of LOLP, SR optimality and solar energy sources.