Improving the optimization of electric power systems through a discrete event based simulation model

Abstract

This paper presents a novel hybrid approach for studying electric power systems as a combination of the electrical power generation process and the actual state of the transmission lines. The approach is composed of a discrete-event simulation model and a mathematical programming model. The simulation model is designed as a routing problem defined over a set of transmission lines considered (individually) as active, inactive, under maintenance, and outage. On the other hand, the mixed-integer lineal programming model determines the best way to generate and transmit power flows (considering, simultaneously, all possible solutions). This type of model allows solving the economic dispatch problem in lower computational times. It also ensures reaching the global optimum. When adding the discrete-event simulation model for studying the state of transmission lines, the final hybrid approach allows obtaining feasible solutions when the system parameters change. Here, both models (i.e., simulation and optimization models) are combined to improve the capabilities of the model structure to represent real-life scenarios. Our proposal is used to analyze a case study composed of an electric system with six buses, eleven lines, and three generators.