Maximization of Output and Effective Load Dispatch of Afam Power Plant

This paper presents the outcome of our research on the optimization of output in the present-day Nigerian power stations using Afam power plant as a case study. Afam power plant is a representative of the about 23 power generating plants connected to the Nigerian national grid which has a total installed capacity of circa 12,000MW. This work has been done using the formulation of various cases of load dispatch equations relevant to the subject and hybrid computational approach i.e., Non-Linear Programming (NLP) optimization method. The authors have applied the various formulations to the operations information at Afam Power Plant. Results revealed that for load dispatch without power generator constraints, generated power is about 650MW, while for load dispatch with power generator constraints, generated power is about 610MW. The results also show that Afam power plant did not produce maximum output in most of the years between 2010 and 2016. The worst years were 2011, 2014 and 2016 due to obvious issues ranging from maintenance downtime to unavailability of transmission line to receive generated power. The research shows that the output of Afam power plant started to improve from 2017 to first Quarter of 2020. Further analysis shows that for system losses and generator limits, dispatch and total cost in naira per hour for a given number of generators load demand can be determined.