Power Delivery in a Deregulated Market

Exhibitor: Valerie Lim

Supervisor: Tapan Saha

Research Group: Complex and Intelligent Systems

Industry Sector: Energy and Utilities

Deregulation of various industries has been taking place around the globe. Electricity industry is among the many. The introduction of deregulation has changed the operation of the electricity industry in many ways – new structure, operation, regulations and challenges. The previously vertically integrated system owned by a single regulatory body has been separated and privatised. These changes aimed to increase efficiency in the industry by introducing competition directly into generation and retail sectors, and indirectly into investment decisions.

The current electricity pricing method is based on the estimation of long term averages. Deregulation requires for more accurate pricing methods to be introduced. This is achievable by determining each electricity consumer’s power usage allocation. Generators that supply electricity to a particular consumer would not want to be paid the same amount if different amount of power were supplied to that consumer. Furthermore, the geographic location of each generator relative to the customer would determine the transmission losses.

Knowing the usage allocation means that power flow could be traced from the source to the load. In particular, the ability to allocate usage is required to calculate losses incurred by individual loads and/or generators on a particular line. These calculations will assist in ensuring that the market is operating fairly, transparently and efficiently.