Creating a Problem

Minpower solves problems that are defined in spreadsheets. The most basic ED problem only has two files: generators.csv and loads.csv. If you are solving an UC then you need to define the initial conditions for your generation in initial.csv. Scheduled or predicted energy amounts (e.g. predicted wind farm output or predicted load demand) over a series of times can be specified in a file defined by the schedule file name column of the component. If you are solving an OPF, then you also need to define your transmission lines in lines.csv.

The following tables give details on how to describe each component using spreadsheet columns. (Column order does not matter. Capitalization, underscores, and spaces are all ignored in the header row column names.) Examples spreadsheets are given after each table.

Generators

Column Name	Description	Default	Units
name	generator name
P min	min. power output	0	MW
P max	max. power output	500	MW
cost curve equation	polynomial for the cost of fuel given a power output		$/MWh
heat rate equation	heat rate polynomial		MMBtu/MWh
fuel cost	(if using a heat rate equation)	1	$/MMBtu
start up cost		0	$
shut down cost		0	$
ramp rate min			MW/h
ramp rate max			MW/h
min up time		0	hours
min down time		0	hours
must run	unit status must remain ON	0
fast start	unit has the ability to start up without having been committed if needed to avoid load shedding (when minpower is run using the faststart option)	False
bus	name of bus where gen. is connected	single bus

name,Pmin,Pmax,heat rate equation,fuel cost,start up cost,min up time,min down time
g1,50,200,220+9.9P,1.4,560,8,8
g2,15,60,80+10.1P,1.4,210,8,8
g3,15,50,60+10.8P,1.4,147,4,4
g4,5,40,40+11.9P,1.4,0,4,4
g5,5,25,34+12.14P,1.4,0,4,4

Initial Conditions

Column Name	Description	Default	Units
name	generator name
power	output at initial time	(Pmax-Pmin)/2	MW
status	status (1 or 0) at initial time	1
hours in status		100	hrs

"name","power","status","hours in status"
g1,250,1,4
g2,0,0,8
g3,0,0,8
g4,0,0,8
g5,0,0,8

Loads

Column Name	Description	Default	Units
name	load name
power	load power (a single number for ED problems or base load)		MW
schedule filename	spreadsheet filename describing the predicted load power over time
bus	name of bus where load is connected	single bus

name,schedulefilename
Ireland,ireland_load_fewdays.csv

Lines

Column Name	Description	Default	Units
name	line name
to	name of bus where line originates
from	name of bus where line terminates
reactance	total electrical reactance of line	0.05	p.u.
P max	maximum power limit of line		MW

from bus,to bus,Pmax
Seattle,Tacoma,3
Olympia,Tacoma,10000
Olympia,Seattle,10000

Schedules

Column Name	Description	Default	Units
time	time and date (if applicable) for the start of the period
power	energy scheduled (or predicted) for the period		MWh

time,power
0:00,250
2:00,320
4:00,110
6:00,75