A three-stage short-term electric power planning procedure for a generation company in a liberalized market

In liberalized electricity markets, generation companies bid their hourly generation in order to maximize their profit. The optimization of the generation bids over a short-term weekly period must take into account the action of the competing generation companies and the market-price formation rules and must be coordinated with long-term planning results. This paper presents a three stage optimization process with a data analysis and parameter calculation, a linearized unit commitment, and a nonlinear generation scheduling refinement. Although the procedure has been developed from the experience with the Spanish power market, with minor adaptations it is also applicable to any generation company participating in a competitive market system.