Patent ID: 7660640

Claim:
A method for controlling a power system control area during a plurality of consecutive automatic generation control cycles to ensure compliance with a control performance standard at an end of a compliance reporting period, the control performance standard including an area control error term, the method comprising: (a) determining an actual value of the control performance standard from a beginning of the reporting period to an end of a current clock minute; (b) determining a control performance standard target for a time remaining in the reporting period, the target based on the actual value determined at a step (a); (c) determining an area control error target for the area control error term responsive to the control performance standard target determined at a step (b); (d) controlling the power system attempting to satisfy the area control error target, wherein operation of the power system affects an actual area control error value at an end of each control cycle; (e) at the end of each control cycle of a next clock minute determining a running average of actual area control error values from a beginning of the next clock minute to a current control cycle within the next clock minute; (f) at the end of each control cycle of the next clock minute, comparing the running average with the area control error target; (g) at the end of each control cycle of the next clock minute, determining an area control error correction value from a step (f); (h) during a next control cycle of the next clock minute, controlling the power system control area in an effort to satisfy the area control error correction value and the area control error target value; (i) repeating steps (d)-(g) until an end of the next clock minute; and (j) repeating steps (a)-(i) until an end of the reporting period.