System tools for evaluating operational and financial performance from dispatchers using after the fact analysis

• US 20110055287A1
• Filed: 07/02/2010
• Published: 03/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alstom Technology Ltd. (Alstom SA)
• Original Assignee: Alstom Technology Ltd. (Alstom SA)
• Inventors: Yao, Mike, Mok, Kee, Xiao, Ying, Sun, David, Chiu, But-Chung, Cheung, Kwok, Wang, Xing
• Granted Patent: US 9,558,250 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/805
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/25 Integrating or interfacing systems involving database management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/50 Systems or methods supporting the power network operation or management, involving a certain degree of interaction with the load-side end user applications

Abstract

A decision-support tool is provided to evaluate operational and financial performance for dispatchers in power grid control centers associated with utility systems. A scheduler engine is coupled to a comprehensive operating plan that applies after the fact analysis for performance metrics, root-cause impacts and process re-engineering. A relational database is coupled to a data archiver that captures actual system and resource conditions and then supplies the system and resource conditions to the relational database. The scheduler engine receives the actual system and resource conditions from the relational database and processes it to calculate system performance. A user interface is configured to display at least one of, transmission evaluation application displays, reference and scenario cases and associations between them, results presented with a graphical or tabular displays, comparison results between scenario cases and a reference case, a family of curves where each curve is a performance metric, comparison of scenario input data, study results and statistical analysis and historical data.

Claims

1. A decision-support tool to evaluate operational and financial performance for dispatchers in power grid control centers associated with utility systems, comprising:

a scheduler engine;

a comprehensive operating plan that applies that applies after the fact analysis for performance metrics, root-cause impacts and process re-engineering;

a relational database;

a data archiver that captures actual system and resource conditions and then supplies the system and resource conditions to the relational database, wherein the scheduler engine receives the actual system and resource conditions from the relational database and processes it to calculate system performance; and

a user interface configured to display at least one of, transmission evaluation application displays, reference and scenario cases and associations between them, results presented with a graphical or tabular displays, comparison results between scenario cases and a reference case, a family of curves where each curve is a performance metric, comparison of scenario input data, study results and statistical analysis and historical data.

2. The tool of claim 1, wherein the comprehensive operating plan using quantitative assessments of how specific events and practices effect energy dispatch power grid system performance.

3. The tool of claim 2, wherein the comprehensive operating plan uses hypothetical scenario analysis to perform simulation of hypothetical scenarios and evaluate cost deviations.

4. The tool of claim 1, wherein the scheduler engine captures actual system and resource conditions.

5. The tool of claim 1, wherein the comprehensive operating plan enables user-defined impact factors for scenario analysis and evaluation criteria.

6. The tool of claim 1, wherein the user interface is configured to provide for cause-impact assessment with effective case-comparison.

7. The tool of claim 1, wherein the comprehensive operating plan is configured to provide after the fact analysis as an objective measure of regional transmission organization/transmission system operator'"'"'s performance with average of % savings, standard deviation of % savings in dispatching the power grid system in a most efficient manner possible by evaluating a potential production cost saving derived from after the fact analysis solutions.

8. The tool of claim 1, wherein the comprehensive operating plan is configured to provide after the fact analysis as an actual dispatch and includes at least one of, actual load, resource output, actual unit regulation status and regulation contribution, actual resource reserve status and reserve contribution, actual unit commitment and actual network topology.

9. The tool of claim 1, where comprehensive operating plan is configured to calculate cost associated with actual dispatch and compares it against a cost associated with the reference dispatch.

10. The tool of claim 1, wherein comprehensive operating plan analyzes performance impacts associated with specific operating events

11. The tool of claim 1, wherein comprehensive operating plan simulates specific events and calculates their quantitative impacts on system performance to generate information that assists in identification of reasons that contribute to a performance gap between actual system operation and an idealized reference condition.

12. The tool of claim 1, wherein impact factors that have an impact on after the fact analysis system operations are selected from at least one of, system and area load changes, zone and area regulation requirement changes, zone and area reserve requirement changes, unit limit and ramp rate changes, unit commitment status change, unit minimum UP and Down time changes, security constraint change, schedule transaction megawatt and price changes, constraint limit and contingency changes and topology changes.

14. The tool of claim 1, wherein the after the fact analysis uses a resource model for modeling resources based on the same information used in Day-Ahead and Intra-Day schedules

15. The tool of claim 1, wherein the after the fact analysis uses a transmission security model.

16. The tool of claim 1, wherein after the fact analysis produces a scenario can include changes selected from at least one of changing, regulation requirements, reserve requirements, system and area load to reflect effects of day-ahead and intra-day forecast errors and uncertainties, tie-line schedules, scheduled transactions:

for reflecting changes to scheduled tie-line equanimities. unit megawatt limits, unit commitment status, unit operational parameters, load resource operational parameters, security constraint limits.

17. The tool of claim 1, wherein the after the fact analysis is configured to organize performance metrics by at least one of, area grouping and time grouping.

18. The tool of claim 1, wherein the scheduler engine is configured to capture power system data preserved in state estimator and alleviate overload files selected from at least one of, unit commitment status, unit outputs, active and reactive bus loads, active and reactive branch flows, and active and reactive constraint flows.

20. The tool of claim 1, wherein the scheduler engine includes one or more functional capabilities selected from, optimized resource commitment and dispatch scheduling, operational and physical constraints, system constraints, energy demand, regulation reserve, operating reserve, transmission security, operational constraints, transmission security, energy, minimum up/down times, ramp rate limits, operational bands around dispatch targets, physical constraints, maximum/minimum energy, maximum/minimum regulation, price and cost-based resource model, price for energy and ancillary services, cost based on fuel or heat rate curve, co-optimized for energy and multiple ancillary services and constraint relaxation with segmented weighting of violation quantities.

13. A decision-support tool to evaluate operational and financial performance for dispatchers in power grid control centers associated with utility systems, comprising:

a scheduler engine used for reference case dispatch results and scenario results;

a comprehensive operating plan that applies after the fact analysis for performance metrics, root-cause impacts and process re-engineering;

a relational database;

a data archiver that captures actual system and resource conditions and then supplies the system and resource conditions to the relational database, wherein the scheduler engine receives the actual system and resource conditions from the relational database and processes it to calculate system performance; and

a user interface configured to display at least one of, transmission evaluation application displays, reference and scenario cases and associations between them, results presented with a graphical or tabular displays, comparison results between scenario cases and a reference case, a family of curves where each curve is a performance metric, comparison of scenario input data, study results and statistical analysis and historical data.

19. The tool of claim 22, wherein a market database includes information selected from at least one of, load forecast, regulation reserve requirements, operating reserve requirements, unit megawatt schedules, unit megawatt limits, demand resource schedules, security constraints, scheduled outages, transmission security constraints and scheduled net interchange.