Optimal Distributed Power Generation Under Network-Load Constraints

Abstract

In electrical power networks nowadays more and more customers are becoming power-producers, mainly because of the development of novel components for decentralized power generation (solar panels, small wind turbines and heat pumps). This gives rise to the question how many units of each type (solar panel, small wind turbine or central heating power units) can be inserted into any transmission line in the network, such that under given distributions on the typical production and consumption over time, the maximum loads on the lines and components will not be exceeded.
In this paper, we present a linear programming model for maximizing the amount
of decentralized power generation while respecting the load limitations of the
network.
We describe a prototype showing that for an example network the maximization
problem can be solved efficiently. We also modeled the case were the power consumption and decentralized power generation are considered as stochastic variables, which is inherently more complex.