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Yearly Maintenance Scheduling of Transmission Lines Within a Market Environment

, Student Member, IEEE, Antonio J. Conejo, Fellow, IEEE, Igor Kuzle, Senior Member, IEEE, Hrvoje Pand zic and Eduardo Caro, Student Member, IEEE

AbstractWithin a yearly horizon, a transmission system operator needs to schedule the maintenance outages of the set of transmission lines due for maintenance. Facing this task, two conicting objectives arise: on one hand, the transmission system adequacy should be preserved as much as possible, and, on the other hand, market operation should be altered in the least possible manner. To address this scheduling problem, a bilevel model is proposed whose upper-level problem schedules line maintenance outages pursuing maximum transmission capacity margin. This upper-level problem is constrained by a set of lower-level problems that represent the clearing of the market for all the time periods considered within the yearly planning horizon. This bilevel model is conveniently converted into a nonlinear mathematical program with equilibrium constraints (MPEC) that can be recast as a mixed-integer linear programming problem solvable with currently available branchand-cut techniques. Index TermsLine maintenance scheduling, market environment, mathematical program with equilibrium constraints (MPEC).

Weighting factor for line . Parameter used for linearizations (upper-level problem). Maximum number of lines simultaneously in maintenance. Origin bus of line . Number of time periods involving maintenance overlap for lines and . Transmission capacity of line (MW). Number of time periods. Weighting factor for line power ow in loading level . Limit for loading level of line power ow (%). Number of working week time periods required for maintenance of line . Number of weekend time periods required for maintenance of line . Parameter used for linearizations (lower-level problem). Price bid of the th block of the th demand ( /MW). Price offer of the th block of the th generating unit ( /MW). B. Variables Power consumed by the th block of the th demand in time period (MW). Power produced by the th block of the th generating unit in time period (MW). Power ow through line in time period (MW). Power ow for loading level period (MW). Absolute value of variable Absolute value of variable of line in time . .

NOTATION The main notation used throughout this paper is stated below for quick reference. Other symbols are dened as required in the text. A. Constants Susceptance of line (S). Destination bus of line . Capacity of the th block of the th demand in time period (MW). Capacity of the th block of the th generating unit in time period (MW).

Manuscript received January 13, 2011; revised April 28, 2011; accepted June 08, 2011. Date of publication July 14, 2011; date of current version was supported by the National January 20, 2012. The work of H. Pand zic Foundation for Science, Higher Education and Technological Development of the Republic of Croatia through Project O-3554-2010. The work of A. J. Conejo and E. Caro was supported in part by Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha through project PCI-08-0102 and in part by the Ministry of Education and Science of Spain through CICYT Project DPI2006-08001. Paper no. TPWRS-00027-2011. and I. Kuzle are with University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia H. Pand zic (e-mail: hrvoje.pandzic@fer.hr; igor.kuzle@fer.hr). A. J. Conejo and E. Caro are with Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Ciudad Real, Spain (e-mail: antonio.conejo@uclm.es; eduardo.caro@uclm.es). Color versions of one or more of the gures in this paper are available online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. Digital Object Identier 10.1109/TPWRS.2011.2159743

Binary variable that is equal to 1 if line is maintained during time period and 0 otherwise. Voltage angle at bus in time period (rad).

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C. Sets Set of the dual variables of the lower-level problem: . Set of the primal variables of the lower-level . problem: Set of the primal variables of the upper-level . problem: Set of all buses indexed by . Set of loading levels indexed by . Set of the demands at bus . Set of the generating units at bus . Set of the blocks of the th generating unit. Set of the blocks of the th demand. Set of demands. Set of pairs of lines which may not be maintained during the same time period. Set of generating units. Set of power lines scheduled for maintenance. Set of power lines not scheduled for maintenance. Set of pairs of lines which maintenance overlap. Set of pairs of lines which have an assigned maintenance sequence (priority). I. INTRODUCTION A. Motivation and Description RANSMISSION lines constitute the backbone of any power system. In order to keep the transmission system in optimal operational conditions, individual transmission lines have to be shut down periodically for either preventive or non-urgent corrective maintenance. Non-urgent corrective maintenance involves non-critical problems which deteriorate the operation of the concerned elements but whose reparations are not urgent and can be postponed to convenient time periods. The purpose of the transmission line maintenance scheduling problem is to determine the optimal time interval for outage of the lines due for maintenance within a yearly time horizon. Since the main long-term objective of the transmission system operator (TSO) is to preserve transmission system adequacy at all times, the considered maintenance needs to be carried out during time periods in which its effect on transmission network capacity margin is the least. Additionally, transmission line maintenance outage should not have signicant impact on the functioning of the electricity market. In this paper, the transmission line maintenance scheduling problem is formulated employing a bilevel approach, which recognizes the aforementioned conicting objectives: on the

one hand, the maximization of the average transmission capacity margin, and, on the other hand, the minimization of the market-clearing impact. Specically, the upper-level problem is constrained by a set of lower-level problems that represent the clearing of the market for all the time periods considered within the yearly planning horizon. This bilevel model can be expressed as a mathematical program with equilibrium constraints (MPEC), which can be converted into a nonlinear mathematical programming problem, which in turn can be recast as a mixed-integer linear programming problem, solvable using currently available branch-and-cut techniques. B. Literature Review and Contribution The technical literature regarding maintenance in power systems is mostly focused on generation maintenance scheduling. Initial techniques regarding generation maintenance scheduling are based on heuristic approaches that consider each generating unit separately and do not include transmission network constraints. The objective functions are various, ranging from equalizing reserves [1] or the risk of not supplying all the demand [2] to minimizing total production cost [3], [4]. The transmission network in the generating unit maintenance problem is rst taken into account in [5] and [6]. A more complex model considering a market environment is presented in [7] and [8]. Integrated generation and transmission maintenance scheduling is rst introduced in [9] and [10] using the Benders decomposition technique. The same authors solve this problem including additional fuel and emission constraints in [11] and introduce a probabilistic approach in [12]. A mixed-integer linear programming model for generation maintenance scheduling in restructured power systems is presented in [13]. This approach is rened and adapted to a market environment in [14] and [15]. Models that coordinate the maintenance scheduling of generating units and transmission lines using a security-constrained unit commitment are presented in [16] and [17]. These works employ Benders decomposition to set hourly maintenance outages, and are intended for relatively short-time scheduling, e.g., a 24-h horizon. On the other hand, the procedure reported in this paper uses a bilevel approach to specically represent market functioning while maximizing the transmission capacity margin. The considered time horizon is one year and generating unit maintenance is not taken into account. The model proposed can be used to obtain long-term maintenance schedules, while the models proposed in [16] and [17] can be used on a weekly or daily basis to determine the exact hourly maintenance schedules. Thus, the models in [16] and [17] and the one proposed in this paper are complementary. A solution to the short-term transmission line maintenance problem with the objective of maximizing producer revenue while satisfying system constraints using Benders decomposition is proposed in [18]. A mixed-integer linear formulation for the long-term maintenance scheduling of distribution overhead lines based on a risk management approach is presented in [19], while a simplied dynamic programming approach for long-term maintenance scheduling of overhead distribution networks is proposed in [20].

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The main contribution of this paper is providing a detailed transmission lines maintenance scheduling model that explicitly considers the market environment by using a bilevel approach. Additionally, duality theory is used to convert this bilevel problem into a mixed-integer linear programming problem, which can be solved using currently available branch-and-cut solvers. C. Paper Organization The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section II describes the proposed model and contains the model formulation, and the linearizations required. Section III presents the application of the model to the IEEE 24-bus Reliability Test System and reports and analyses of the results. Finally, Section IV provides some relevant conclusions. II. MODEL A. Time Horizon The considered time horizon is one year divided into weeks, and each week is divided in two blocks: working week and weekend. The division of weeks into two blocks signicantly improves the usability of the model because the duration of line maintenance may often be relatively short, typically shorter than a week; thus, the maintenance outage of a specic line may be scheduled only during weekends when the electricity consumption is lower. B. Formulation The TSO seeks to schedule the maintenance of the transmission lines due for maintenance pursuing maximum transmission system adequacy and considering market outcomes. We use the average transmission capacity margin as a proxy for transmission adequacy, as stated through objective function (1a). The upper-level problem sets the lines maintenance schedule, while the set of lower-level problems reproduces the market clearing for each time period. The total number of periods is 104, i.e., 52 working week periods and 52 weekend periods. The transmission maintenance scheduling problem is formulated as follows. Note that the dual variables of the lower-level problem are indicated following the corresponding constraints separated by a colon:

subject to: 1) power ow constraints: (1b)

(1c) (1d) (1e) 2) scheduling constraints: (1f) (1g)

(1h)

(1i) (1j) (1k) (1l) (1m) (1n)

(1o)

(1p) 3) lower-level problems:

(2a) subject to

(2b) (1a)

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(2c) (2d) (2e) (2f) (2g) (2h) (2i) (2j) (2k) (2l) (2m) (2n) (2o)

, respectively. The previous three sets of constraints are explained in detail in [13]. The lower-level objective function (2a) to be maximized represents the social welfare in the corresponding time period. Constraints(2b)arepowerbalanceequationsforallbuses.Constraints (2c) represent power ow through lines due for maintenance, and (2f) through lines not due for maintenance. Constraints (2d)(2e) set the line ow limits of lines due for maintenance and (2g)(2h) of lines not due for maintenance. Although constraints (2c)(2e), which refer to lines due for maintenance, are similar to (2f)(2h), which refer to lines not due for maintenance, they are considered separately because of the nonlinearity of the equations (2c). Constraints (2i) and (2j) impose capacity limits to generating units and demands, respectively. Constraints (2k) and (2l) limit voltage angles. Constraint (2m) sets the reference bus. Finally, constraints (2n) and (2o) represent variables declarations. C. MPEC In order to solve the problem formulated in the previous subsection, it is necessary to express the lower-level problem as a set of constraints of the upper-level problem. Thus, the dual problem of the lower-level problem (2) for time period is formulated as

Model (1)(2) consists of an upper-level problem (1) and a set of lower-level problems (2). The upper-level problem objective function (1a), to be maximized, is the sum of the unused transmission capacity over all available lines and all time periods. The two parts of the objective function (1a) refer to lines not due for maintenance and lines due for maintenance, respectively. The numerators in both terms of the objective function represent the available free transmisis a penalty factor which penalizes sion capacity. Parameter high line loading. Parameter is a weighting factor which enables assigning different priorities to lines. The denominator in both parts of the objective function is the sum of the overall demand in the system. This way, if some time periods are similar in terms of free transmission capacity, the one with smaller demand receives priority for maintenance. Constraints (1b) state that the summation of absolute value power ow blocks is equal to the absolute power ow value, whereas constraints (1c) set bounds for block pertaining to power ow variables. In order to preserve the consistency of has to be equal to the model, the summation over of all to be the 1. Constraints (1d) and (1e) set the variable . Constraints (1f) are binary variable absolute value of declaration, while constraints (1g) and (1h) set the number of working week and weekend time periods for maintenance, respectively. Constraints (1i) and (1j) enforce continuous maintenance for working week and weekend, respectively. Each constraint (1k) binds the previous two corresponding and are both greater constraints and is active only if than 0. Constraints (1l) set the maximum number of lines simultaneously in maintenance. Constraints (1m) are the maintenance exclusion constraints. Constraints (1n) are the priority constraints, while constraints (1o) and (1p) are the maintenance and in overlap constraints. and (1p) are constants equal to

(3a) subject to (3b) (3c)

(3d)

(3e)

(3f)

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(3g) (3h) (3i) (3j) (3k) (3l) (3m) On the other hand, the strong duality equality for each time period is

Dual nonlinear constraints (3e) and (3f) are replaced by the following linear ones [21]:

(7a)

(7b) (7c) (7d) with parameter large enough. III. CASE STUDY The proposed model is applied to a modied IEEE 24-bus Reliability Test System [22], as shown in Fig. 1. This system includes 17 generators, 17 demands, and 38 lines. (4) Considering 1) the constraints of all lower-level problems, 2) the constraints of their corresponding dual problems, and 3) the associated strong duality equalities, problem (1)(2) can be recast as (5a) subject to (5b) A. Data Generators data are given in Table I. We consider that all generators offer at their marginal costs. Therefore, generator offering blocks are the same for all time periods. Demand bid prices in all time periods are set to 100 /MWh, i.e., higher than the offering prices of the most expensive generators. The overall system demand shown is distributed among buses as indicated in Table II. To illustrate better the performance of the model, the capacity of all transmission lines is set to 60% of the values provided in [22]. Transmission line capacities and weighting factors are provided in Table III. Loading level block limits and weighting factors are given in Table IV. Finally, Table V provides information on lines due for maintenance outage, including the anticipated number of working week and weekend time periods needed for maintenance, as well as all the exclusion, priority, and overlap constraint data. The presented case study is solved in GAMS 23.5 using CPLEX 12.1 on a Linux-based server with four processors clocking at 2.9 GHz and 64 GB of RAM. B. Results and Discussion The results obtained are depicted in Fig. 2. For sake of comparison, the same gure shows the overall demand in each time period. The optimal maintenance outage of line 3 takes place at the beginning of the year, in time periods 46, with fairly

D. Linearization Problem (5) contains the nonlinear constraints (2c), (3e), and (3f), which are linearized below. Each constraint (2c) is replaced by the following linear conlarge enough [21]: straints with parameter

(6a) (6b)

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TABLE II DISTRIBUTION OF DEMAND AMONG BUSES IN %

TABLE III TRANSMISSION LINE CAPACITIES AND WEIGHTING FACTORS

Fig. 1. Modied IEEE 24-bus Reliability Test System. TABLE I POWER BLOCKS AND OFFERING PRICES FOR GENERATORS

TABLE IV LOADING LEVEL LIMITS FOR LINES AND WEIGHTING FACTORS

high demand. Since line 9 is due for maintenance only during weekend periods, its maintenance is scheduled during periods 32, 34, 36, 38, and 40, when the demand level is the lowest. The maintenance outages of lines 27 and 6 are scheduled during periods 4854 and 5355, respectively. The maintenance schedule of the aforementioned lines overlaps in time periods 53 and 54,

as required. Finally, maintenance outage of line 23 is scheduled during high-demand periods 100103. It is important to note that given the discrete, nonlinear, and non-convex nature of the considered problem, the intuitions low

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Fig. 2. Line maintenance scheduling results compared to overall demand. TABLE V LINES TO BE MAINTAINED AND MAINTENANCE REQUIREMENTS

Fig. 3. Objective function and price changes.

demandhigh maintenance and high demandno maintenance cannot be applied in a straightforward manner. For example, if no line is in maintenance in period 103 (a high-demand period), lines 10 and 27 become congested and line 23 is close to congestion. On the other hand, if line 23 is in maintenance, only line 7 becomes congested which actually improves the objective function value in time period 103. The overall outcome is that in period 103 the system is better off if line 23 is maintained. On the other hand, if no line is in maintenance in period 31 (an arbitrary low-demand period), no congestion occurs. However, if line 23 is in maintenance, lines 7 and 26 become congested which signicantly deteriorates the objective function value in time period 31. The overall outcome is that in period 31, the system is better off if line 23 is not maintained. Besides the objective function value reecting transmission system capacity margin, locational marginal price changes are important as they reect market impact. Fig. 3 illustrates both objective function values and price changes. For illustrative purposes, the inuence of the maintenance outage of each line is considered separately, as well as the maintenance outages of all ve transmission lines due for maintenance. It is important to note that the percentual change of the objective function is small because the objective function components in time periods in which no lines are scheduled for maintenance have the same values as those in the case with no lines in maintenance at all.

With all ve lines in maintenance, only 20 time periods have different objective function values, while the remaining 84 time periods have the same objective function values as in the case of no maintenance, causing a small change in the overall objective function. As shown in Fig. 3, the maintenance outage of line 3 slightly increases the overall objective function value. This makes this problem analogous to the optimal transmission network switching problem since the outage of certain lines in specic time periods actually improves the objective function. Maintenance outage of line 6 decreases the objective function value and increases the average nodal prices, which implies that this line is important for power transmission in all time periods. In other words, there is no time period in which the line could be switched off without increasing market prices. The optimal maintenance outage of line 9 also deteriorates the transmission system adequacy but has no effect on nodal market prices because its removal does not cause congestion of any other line. Since line 23 is congested in most working week time periods, its maintenance during high-demand periods improves overall transmission system capacity margin while at the same time signicantly increases the sum of nodal prices. As a result of line 23 being important for delivering cheaper electricity from the northern part of the transmission system to the high-demand

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southern part of the system, its maintenance outage has a signicant impact on market prices. The impact of the maintenance outage of line 27 to the transmission system capacity margin and market performance is similar to the one of line 6, but with greater negative consequences. Finally, the last pair of column bars in Fig. 3 shows the joint inuence of the maintenance outages of the ve lines. As expected, the objective function decreases, and the overall sum of nodal prices increases. C. Computational Performance The required CPU time to solve problem (5) considering a single line in maintenance is around 2 min. In case of 2 lines due for maintenance, the required CPU time increases up to 20 min. To lighten the computational burden for the ve-line case, we rst obtain initial solutions for each line due for maintenance by solving a problem for each line separately. Using the obtained results from the single-line problems as the initial solution for the ve-line problem leads to a solution time of approximately 2.5 h. The computer burden is signicantly lower if maintenance windows (specic periods for maintenance) are used since it reduces the number of binary variable combinations. It is important to note that the problem under consideration is solved once a year, and thus, computational burden is not a primary concern. The technique proposed relays in existing fast, scalable, and robust mixed-integer optimization techniques that can be applied for convergence to a local or global solution. Moreover, such mixed-integer optimization techniques are expected to improve in terms of computational efciency and robustness during the next years. Additionally, note that decomposition techniques [23] and parallel computation methods can be used to tackle particularly large-scale problems. The computational burden can also be reduced using alternative approaches (such as regional scheduling for multi-region systems). IV. CONCLUSION Within a yearly time framework, the model proposed in this paper is intended to help the TSO in its task of scheduling the maintenance outages of the transmissions lines of the system it operates. The analysis of the proposed model and the case study reported in this paper allow drawing the following conclusions: 1) The proposed bilevel model allows adequately representing the tradeoff between preserving transmission system capacity margin and minimizing market impact, a tradeoff to be resolved by the TSO. 2) In well-developed transmission systems, the maintenance outage of a single line has generally a small impact on the transmission capacity margin. It is thus important to use transmission adequacy indices that mathematically recognize this fact. 3) The proposed model is computationally burdensome as a result of a) its MPEC structure and b) the low sensitivity of transmission capacity margin indices with the outage of a single line. However, an appropriate objective function selection (for the upper-level problem), as the piece-wise one proposed in this paper, makes the problem computationally tractable.

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[1] W. Christiaanse and A. Palmer, A technique for the automated scheduling of the maintenance of generating facilities, IEEE Trans. Power App. Syst., vol. PAS-91, no. 1, pp. 137144, 1972. [2] L. Garver, Adjusting maintenance schedules to levelize risk, IEEE Trans. Power App. Syst., vol. PAS-91, no. 5, pp. 20572063, 1972. [3] K. Hara, M. Kimura, and N. Honda, A method for planning economic unit commitment and maintenance of thermal power systems, IEEE Trans. Power App. Syst., vol. PAS-85, no. 5, pp. 427436, May 1966. [4] J. Yellen, T. Al-Khamis, S. Vemuri, and L. Lemonidis, A decomposition approach to unit maintenance scheduling, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 726733, May 1992. [5] L. Chen and J. Toyoda, Optimal generating unit maintenance scheduling for multi-area system with network constraints, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 11681174, Aug. 1991. [6] E. Silva, M. Morozowski, L. Fonseca, G. Oliveira, A. Melo, and J. Mello, Transmission constrained maintenance scheduling of generating units: A stochastic programming approach, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 695701, May 1995. [7] S. P. Canto, Application of benders decomposition to power plant preventive maintenance scheduling, Eur. J. Oper. Res., vol. 184, no. 2, pp. 759777, 2008. [8] J.-H. Kim, J.-B. Park, J.-K. Park, and Y.-H. Chun, Generating unit maintenance scheduling under competitive market environments, Int. J. Elect. Power Energy Syst., vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 189194, 2005. [9] M. Marwali and S. Shahidehpour, Integrated generation and transmission maintenance scheduling with network constraints, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 10631068, Aug. 1998. [10] M. K. C. Marwali and S. M. Shahidehpour, A deterministic approach to generation and transmission maintenance scheduling with network constraints, Elect. Power Syst. Res., vol. 47, no. 2, pp. 101113, 1998. [11] M. Marwali and S. Shahidehpour, Long-term transmission and generation maintenance scheduling with network, fuel and emission constraints, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 11601165, Aug. 1999. [12] M. K. C. Marwali and S. M. Shahidehpour, A probabilistic approach to generation maintenance scheduler with network constraints, Int. J. Elect. Power Energy Syst., vol. 21, no. 8, pp. 533545, 1999. [13] A. Conejo, R. Garca-Bertrand, and M. Daz-Salazar, Generation maintenance scheduling in restructured power systems, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 984992, May 2005. [14] T. Geetha and K. S. Swarup, Coordinated maintenance scheduling of gencos and transcos in restructured power systems, in Proc. Power India Conf., 2006. [15] T. Geetha and K. S. Swarup, Coordinated preventive maintenance scheduling of genco and transco in restructured power systems, Int. J. Elect. Power Energy Syst., vol. 31, no. 10, pp. 626638, 2009. [16] Y. Fu, M. Shahidehpour, and Z. Li, Security-constrained optimal coordination of generation and transmission maintenance outage scheduling, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 13021313, Aug. 2007. [17] L. Wu, M. Shahidehpour, and Y. Fu, Security-constrained generation and transmission outage scheduling with uncertainties, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 16741685, Aug. 2010. [18] M. Marwali and S. Shahidehpour, Short-term transmission line maintenance scheduling in a deregulated system, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 11171124, Aug. 2000. [19] A. Abiri-Jahromi, M. Fotuhi-Firuzabad, and E. Abbasi, An efcient mixed-integer linear formulation for long-term overhead lines maintenance scheduling in power distribution systems, IEEE Trans. Power Del., vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 20432053, Oct. 2009. [20] E. Abbasi, M. Fotuhi-Firuzabad, and A. Abiri-Jahromi, Risk based maintenance optimization of overhead distribution networks utilizing priority based dynamic programming, in Proc. Power & Energy Society General Meeting (PES09), Jul. 2009. [21] L. Garcs, A. Conejo, R. Garca-Bertrand, and R. Romero, A bilevel approach to transmission expansion planning within a market environment, IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 15131522, Aug. 2009. [22] Power Systems Test Case Archive. [Online]. Available: http://www.ee. washington.edu/research/pstca. [23] A. J. Conejo, E. Castillo, R. Mnguez, and R. Garca-Bertrand, Decomposition Techniques in Mathematical Programming. Engineering and Science Applications. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer-Verlag, 2006.

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(S06) received the M.E.E. degree Hrvoje Pand zic in 2007 from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Zagreb, Croatia. He was awarded the annual Hrvoje Po zar award by the foundation of the Croatian Energy Society for outstanding diploma thesis. He was also awarded the faculty annual award Josip Lon car. He is currently a postgraduate student, working as a junior researcher at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. His elds of interest include optimization and power system maintenance under competitive environment.

Igor Kuzle (S94M97SM04) received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Zagreb, Croatia, in 1991, 1997, and 2002, respectively. He was awarded the faculty annual award Josip Lon car. Since graduation, he has been working at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, where he is currently a Professor. His scientic interests include power systems dynamic and control, maintenance of electric power system, and market environment in power systems.

Antonio J. Conejo (F04) received the M.S. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, in 1987 and the Ph.D. degree from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, in 1990. He is currently a full Professor at the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Ciudad Real, Spain. His research interests include control, operations, planning and economics of electric energy systems, as well as statistics and optimization theory and its applications.

Eduardo Caro (S08) received the Electrical Engineering degree from the Polytechnical University of Catalua, Barcelona, Spain, in June 2007. He is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, Ciudad Real, Spain. His research interests include power system state estimation, optimization, sensitivity analysis, and power system quality.