METHODS OF SOLVING MULTI-AREA ECONOMIC DISPATCH PROBLEMS- A SURVEY AND PROPOSED CANDIDATE SDP APPROACH

Computational intelligence methods may be effectively used to control power system settings automatically to achieve optimal operating power systems objective functions and ensure optimal load flows while fulfilling system constraints. Economic dispatch of power systems involving large interconnected areas or zones require optimum and efficient allocation of the power to ensure efficient transferred output power to the systems in the various zones. One approach in achieving optimum dispatch of the power generated is to model the system as a Multi Area Emission Economic Dispatch (MAEED) optimization problem. One such formulation could be the minimization the running cost and emission objective functions subject to generator power limits, power balance and tie-line capacity constraints. This paper provides a survey of some of the existing research on both single area and multi area economic dispatch problems respectively and discusses the associated methods used in solving these different problems. Based on this study, we propose a candidate approach to address multi area economic dispatch problems using a semidefinite programming (SDP) method and we outline the associated computational and performance advantages.