New formulation of power plants’ general complex orders on European electricity markets

•A model for general complex orders on the all-European power exchange is proposed.•The clearing can handle ramping and income conditions simultaneously.•The formulation has the same theoretical complexity as operating clearing models.•The integrated solution approach facilitates market analysis and later development. The adequate modeling of power generation is one of the most challenging issues in the field of electricity markets. Practical market clearing requires simple and transparent formulations but some of the financial and technical conditions of power plants are inherently complicated. In Europe, this predicament is usually handled by introducing special order types on day-ahead power exchanges. This approach often leads to algorithmic complications for power exchanges because new order types usually imply specific constraints some of which can affect the behavior of their overall mathematical model. The officially proposed clearing algorithm of the all-European exchange (namely, EUPHEMIA) is supposed to handle so-called complex orders for suppliers. These are composed of a set of traditional hourly step bids with linking conditions i.e. the Minimum Income Condition, the Load Gradient Condition and the auxiliary Scheduled Stop Condition. A new formulation is proposed for the case when all three conditions are attached to the complex order. A single convex Mixed Integer Problem is solved for market clearing which is conceptually similar to the models already widely used in Europe. Numerical case studies are discussed along with practical viability.