Scheduling of Electricity Distribution at UTP GDC Plant Using Linear Programming

Demands of electricity by University Technology PETRONAS (UTP) for student and office usage are high. This demand supplied by UTP Gas District Cooling plant (GDC plant) which is located at UTP. UTP GDC plant has two gas turbines to produce electricity but unfortunately, the electricity is also used for the four electric chillers in the plant and for plant usage. To ensure good electricity distribution, proper scheduling is needed. This could be achieved by using scheduling model. In this study, scheduling model using linear programming is proposed. The proposed model is used to distribute the generated kWh of electricity from the two gas turbines to the four electric chillers, UTP and plant usage. Four scenarios are used for the study, namely: operations during peak hours on weekdays, operations during off peak hours on weekdays, operations during peak hours on weekends and lastly, operations during off peak hours on weekends. The spreadsheet model is used for the analysis using Microsoft Excel Solver. Based on the analysis, the results are the kWh per month of electricity distribution to each destination for each scenario and the total distribution cost for a month. Sensitivity analysis was done in order to know the sensitivity of the modeling. The results show that the kWh per month of electricity that need to be distributed to each destinations based on the demand from the destinations for January to October 2009. The study shows that with electricity scheduling, the cost of distributions can be minimize.