Theses and Dissertations Collection

In this thesis, a unit commitment model is developed that integrates economic dispatch and demand response into a single mixed integer linear program which is formulated to include renewable generation and electric vehicle charging. The objective function is expressed as a cost function formulated to minimize cost of generation and penalizes curtailment of load. The constraints ensure that energy balance, ramp rate limits, and transmission limits are observed. To support the integrated model, separate generation and load models were developed from historical data collected from Department of Energy research laboratories and from stochastic approximations. Renewable generation is integrated into the generation model as non-curtailable sources to demonstrate the variability introduced into the system and to stress the model. In addition, electric vehicle charging systems are included in the load model to determine the impact that various levels of electric vehicle penetration has on residential and commercial loads. The model is then used to simulate a hypothetical grid connected microgrid that can import power from external sources. An interactive user interface allows the user to modify the system to observe the response with the objective of maximizing profit. The thesis concludes by presenting a novel approach to the solution of difference equations using mixed integer linear programs that has been developed in this project and that can be further developed and extended to provide an alternative to z-transform analysis or iterative numerical methods.