Economic Dispatch
Economic Dispatch: Beyond Emergency Power
In large power systems, coordinating the operations of multiple interconnected generating units is required to meet electricity demand. Economic dispatching solutions exist to decide these outputs to reduce fuel costs. Did you know that temporarily displacing grid power during a few peak hours each year could avoid costly utility “capacity and transmission” charges that amount to $100,000 to $200,000 savings per megawatt?
In addition to maintaining your facility’s reliability, meeting the forecasted system load at the lowest possible cost is one of the key goals in power system operation. Another term for this initiative is economic dispatch.
What Is Economic Dispatch in Power Systems?
Economic dispatch is more than emergency power — it is a crucial aspect of power system planning and operations. Economic dispatch is the ability to dispatch your generator(s), which are normally sitting idle awaiting a utility failure, during peak hours to save on monthly transmission and capacity charges. The loads are allocated to the generating units in a power system to reduce total operating costs while meeting operational constraints. These solutions determine the most economical way to share the load among these generating units.
Individual generating units in a power system have operational limitations, like maximum and minimum loading. The goal of economic dispatch is to optimally coordinate these power generation outputs to meet the load requirements without increasing fuel costs.
How Does Economic Dispatch for Power Generators Work?
Total power generation needs to meet the total demand for power received and transferred to the load at any moment. Transmission losses in the line can reduce the amount of usable power. To maximize total power generation, generators in the facility need to be close enough electrically to make line losses negligible.
Another consideration is the increment cost generation of each generator. To determine the most cost-effective way to distribute load in a plant, an economic dispatch solution must ensure each generator has an identical incremental fuel cost.
Economic dispatch is not a government or utility program — this is a common misconception. There is no registration and no contracts. Rather, it is an opportunity to control your energy cost and find the optimal equipment and services for your facility.
Foley In Action
Here are some important references about how Foley provides value and puts Economic Dispatch into action, as well as a brochure on how generator sets can be utilized at any time to reduce utility costs and generate revenue.
Get a Better Return on Investment With the Optimal Dispatch of Power Generators
Traditionally, emergency generators do not provide a return on investment (ROI). With economic dispatch, now you have payback! Get a return on investment by saving on your energy bill that you pay every month. Displacing the utility grid power consumption can result in significant savings on your energy costs.
Our turnkey solutions for optimizing your power dispatch include:
- Economic dispatch: As part of your energy project, our engineers can develop a tailored solution for monitoring and dispatching.
- Peak shaving: Take advantage of significant savings and revenue with small adjustments in your dispatch. With peak shaving, your system displaces power during peak hours to maximize savings and avoid capacity and transmission charges.
- Demand response: Peak shaving makes up just one aspect of our comprehensive solutions. Our demand response offerings empower you to manage your usage during high-value opportunities when kilowatt-hour costs are high due to demand imbalance.
These services use reliable Cat® power generators and switchgear to make the most out of your energy resources, including:
- Emergency generator set paralleling for multiple generator sets
- Emergency transfer load for a single-engine generator set with one utility source
- Emergency transfer load management to parallel several generator sets with one or more utility sources
- Custom solutions based on your application and needs
Economic Dispatch Solutions From Foley, Inc. and Our Partners
When you request our dispatch services, we use the power of Cat equipment to change your approach to energy. Let our team of experts and partners provide you with these solutions:
- Products: Select from a portfolio of products, including both diesel and gas generators, switchgear, ATS, enclosures and more custom solutions.
- Maintenance: Our power systems services cover on-site maintenance and repairs to make maintaining and managing your equipment easier. Explore capabilities of Customer Support Agreements and Extended Service Contracts.
- Turnkey Services: Foley, Inc. provides full services and support for our clients’ projects, including equipment, financing, maintenance, engineering, procurement and construction, so you can optimally use your systems.
- Monitoring and Dispatch: With monitoring and dispatch, you can learn the optimal time to use assets and diagnose and control your system remotely.
- Ownership / Financing: Foley, Inc. offers several financing options to help you acquire the solutions you need. Purchase directly from Foley or finance with our project experts at Cat Finance.
Some of these services may be provided by a third party and facilitated by Foley, Inc.
On-Site Power as a Service Using Microgrid Technology
Foley, Inc. economic dispatch solutions can involve the use of a variety of power generation assets, including microgrid equipment. A microgrid system consists of on-site electricity sources that can work with the local power grid or as stand-alone sources. Your microgrid system from Foley, Inc. will increase your energy resiliency and reliability in emergencies as well as provide flexibility of economic dispatch.
Learn More About Economic Dispatch for Power Generators From Foley, Inc.
At Foley, Inc., we help health care, education, government, commercial and industrial clients save on energy. Count on our distributed generation (DG), distributed energy resource (DER) and DER management system (DERMS) solutions for backup power and better ROI.