Economic load dispatch in Brazilian isolated electricity system: A case study of Oiapoque

Abstract

The application of renewable energy generation sources is growing globally as part of a strategic action to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases and combat global climate change. Combining the use of this type of generation source with thermal generation sources makes possible to establish hybrid generation systems that can be used to supply isolated systems. However, renewable energy sources are intermittent and unstable. These issues impact the system’s spinning reserve, whose optimization can be treated as a problem of economic load dispatch. The objective of this study is to define an optimal parameterization for the control of a hybrid solar–diesel generation system that serves the city of Oiapoque, in the state of Amapá, Brazil. Through the use of a genetic algorithm model, the study analyzes solar forecast data and control system parameters of the generation plant in order to obtain a configuration that optimizes the operation of the generation system. The results show that the genetic algorithm is able to obtain parameters that optimize the operation of the generation system and that minimize the consumption of diesel, reducing the operational cost of the system.