The evaluation of the asset portfolio is an important task for power generators, because it is the only way to evaluate the utilization of the available resources under economic and technical side conditions. It is essential to determine the marketable generation capacities against market prices and to forecast the physically possible generation to avoid bottlenecks.

Among others, the following data goes into a portfolio optimization:

• Generation capacities and characteristic curves of thermal and hydraulic power plants

• Fuel prices and fuel supply contracts including restrictions on amounts

• Carbon dioxide prices and emissions

• Market prices, volatilities and correlation coefficients

• Virtual power plants, power plant segments, and zoned supply contracts

• Band-oriented supply transactions

• System services (regular reserve)

• Usage vectors from own consumption and transactions

• Revisions and compulsory utilizations

• Limitations on levels of reservoirs

Task

The program modules used in optimization up to now received the required information from various sources. These sources were text files, Excel files and Access databases that, before optimization, had to be filled with data from surrounding systems by hand. Besides the time spent on this process the fact that the portfolio had to be filled for each of the separate optimization modules led to input errors and discrepancies between the portfolios. Versionizing by hand using directories and files also made it more difficult to trace the results.

Objectives

In this project SOPTIM designed an audit-proof system based on databases with the following objectives:

• Consolidation of all required data in one central portfolio modeled in scenarios with user-controlled versionizing.

• Import and export functionality to surrounding systems with high degree of automating. Improving data quality using up-to-date data.

• Storing results of optimization calculations with complete traceability of all input data. Providing results in the form of reports.

• Quick and automated aggregation of the portfolio data for the specific optimization module, and thus significantly shortening the work process cycles.

Key Data

• Project Duration: 3 years

• Number of Employees: 2-5

• Number of Users: app. 40

Functional Range

The new system was developed as a client/server system in which the client can access the Oracle database via a procedural interface only so that the server is used as application server. The use of a procedural interface with the client made it possible to conduct an authorization concept and all functional and technical processing of data directly in the database. In the client applications for data input, reports, import and export this interface was supplied using a .NET component This completely separated data processing from the client application, and created the opportunity to re-use the database component in other client applications.

Technical Characteristics

• Support Operation Systems – ClientWindows XP/Vista mit .NET-Framework 2.0

• Support Operation Systems Server – All operation systems with Oracle 10.2

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