The fuel cost function of each generating unit is represented as a quadratic function. Therefore for N generators and over a period of time T, the objective function can be formulated as follow:
T N
mb Ftot = XE(a< + biPit + ciP’2) ($) (1)
t=1 i=1
where, Ftot is total operating cost of the thermal power plants in $, Pt is output power of the i-th generating unit at the t-th hour in MW, ai, bi, ci are fuel cost coefficients of the i-th generating unit, N is number of online generating units, and T is the operational period in hour.
