Handy Tools for Daily Operations

Hourly Load Forecasts

Typically, the daily ops staff prepares an hourly load forecast for up to two weeks into the future based on current weather forecasts.  An experienced staff is usually adept at forecasting the peak, energy, and in some cases the minimum load for each day.  The more difficult task is to forecast the loads for all hours in each day. 

One of the tools in the Daily Ops package estimates the hourly loads for each day of the forecast period given the peak and energy forecasted by the staff.  Optionally, the tool will also take as input the minimum load forecasted for each day. 

Creation of Market File

PowrSym3 will simulate interaction with up to four market areas, but the user must provide a file of market prices and associated MW levels.  The file that is input to PowrSym3 is quite large with extensive information on each hour to be simulated. 

One Daily Ops tool permits the user to input as much or as little information that is available about the market.  This can be as little as three lines of data that will generate a market file for up to a year, or it can be a line of information for every hour to be simulated depending on how much information is available to the user on the market. 

Scheduled Interchange

Scheduled interchange sales and purchases must be accounted for in the production simulation process to provide a basis for commit and dispatch decisions.  The daily ops staff usually keys in this information each day for the study period.

A tool is available whereby the user inputs the hourly net interchange into a programmed spreadsheet, and with minimal effort on the part of the user, the spreadsheet information is converted to a file for import into the PowrSym3 database.

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