Power Generation Scheduling of the Southern Electrical Network of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Power generation scheduling to cover the load economically is an  important issue, especially with ever growing increased fuel costs. The  effective power plant management has to give the economic factor of fuel cost and technical characteristics of the machines an outstanding  importance. Input /Output characteristics of the power plants must be taken  during economic dispatching of load. In addition, the fuel cost variation  driven by the fuel market must be taken into consideration for economic  operation of the power plants. In this paper, a study of the economic  scheduling of generating plants of the Southern Electrical Network (SEN) of  Saudi Arabia using input / output characteristics of the plants and the fuel  costs is conducted. Results show that a substantial savings can be obtained  from operation of these plants following variation in the fuel cost.