Optimum price of electricity in thermal-generating station under deregulation

The deregulated market is characterised by a number of power producers trying to sell electric power through bilateral agreements or power exchanges. Each utility follows its own pricing strategy and causes more price volatility and makes comparison difficult. This paper presents a general model to determine the optimal Electricity Price (EP) at the generator end point which motivates investment and provides quality power supply to the terminal point. The proposed model is formulated considering peak/off-peak loads, plant load factor, outages, breakdown maintenance, availability of the plant and penalty. The developed model is applied to a typical thermal utility in India to determine the EP.