Energy-Saving Generation Dispatch Using Minimum Cost Flow

This study uses a minimum cost flow method to solve a dispatch problem in order to minimize the consumption of coal in the dispatching of a thermal power system. Low-carbon generation dispatching is also considered here since the scheduling results are consistent with energy-saving generation dispatch. Additionally, this study employs minimum coal consumption as an objective function in considering the output constraints, load balance constraints, line loss, ramp rate limits, spinning reverse needs, prohibited operating zone requirements, security constraints, and other common constraints. The minimum cost flow problem, considering the loss of network flow, is known as a generalized network flow problem, which can be expressed as a quadratic programming problem in mathematics. Accordingly, the objective function was solved by LINGO11, which was used to calculate a network in a single time; a continuous period dispatch plan was obtained by accumulating each period network flow together. This analysis proves it feasible to solve a minimal cost flow problem with LINGO11. Theoretical analysis and numerical results prove the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed method.