Paula Valenzuela, PUC-Rio – MSc

The Energy Reallocation Mechanism (ERM) was created to mitigate the “production risk” to which the hydroelectric power plants are often exposed. The ERM allows the hydro plants to use, for the purpose of the CCEE market clearing, the energy credits obtained within the ERM instead of their physical generation. These energy credits are currently calculated as the product of the share that each plant has in ERM and the total amount of energy produced by the plants that are part of the mechanism. In turn, this share is calculated as the ratio between the Physical Guarantee (PG) of the plant and the total PG of all the ERM participants. However, the current methodology for calculating PG does not take into account that each power plant has different contributions to the total generation of the system in terms of expected value and volatility of its generation. This indicates a potential cross-subsidy among power plants in ERM. In this sense, this work proposes a methodology, that can be applied in the allocation of the benefits resulting from the formation of a pool of any set of generators, but that in this work will be focused on ERM to set the shares of the mechanism based on the method of Marginal Benefits capturing at the same time the effect that the expected value and the volatility of production of each participant has on the portfolio. In this criterion, power plants with a negative correlation with the total production of the system will add greater benefits to ERM, as they would help to reduce the volatility of generation (energy credits) within the mechanism. In order to evaluate if the objective was achieved the proposed methodology will be not only compared to the current methodology in Brazil, but also applied to a set of Brazilian generators engaged in an ERM formed by hydro, biomass and wind power plants.

Ricardo Perez, COPPE/UFRJ – MSc

Adding FACTS and Distributed-FACTS to the system allows greater control of the active power flow and greater operational flexibility to accommodate different dispatch scenarios. In this dissertation, Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) formulations of the incorporation of these devices in the transmission expansion planning problem are proposed. This problem is formulated as an optimization model based on the linearized power flow and circuit limits where the objective is to minimize the investments in the transmission system. The first proposed formulation by this dissertation is an alternative hybrid linear model that avoids the nonlinearity present in the Kirchhoff Voltage Law for candidate circuits adding at the same time power controllability to the system. The second proposed formulation models Candidate Series Compensation Devices (CSCDs) which are able to increase and/or decrease the line reactance and consequently control the power flow in the target transmission line. The CSCDs can be attached to an existing or candidate line and has a specific setpoint according to each dispatch scenario and operating conditions. Practical applications of the proposed formulations are demonstrated through several case studies.