Economic scheduling of the UAN cogeneration plant: A preliminary optimization study

In this paper, an attempt is made to solve the unit scheduling problem as applied to the cogeneration complex at Umm Al nar station. This complex supplies most of the electrical power and desalinated water needs of the city of Abu Dhabi, UAE. The objective of the study is to find the optimal load distribution among the different power generating units which would yield a minimum fuel energy consumption for a given station power and water demands. The paper shows how this problem is solved under purely static operating conditions assuming a constant water supply of desalinated water by MSF distillers. To simplify the problem, the UAN station is first divided into five production block with the operation of each block optimized individually. Subsequently, the optimization of the five blocks is carried out to obtain the load which should be carried by each block for a minimum energy consumption.