The Journal of Engineering Research (TJER), Vol. 15, No. 1 (2018) 01-13 

 

 
                                                                                                                      DOI: 10.24200/tjer.vol15iss1pp1-13 

 

Effect of Considering Transmission Losses in Economic 
Dispatch – A Case Study of Oman’s Main Interconnected 

System  

M.H. Albadi*, F.N. Al Farsi, N. Hosseinzadeh, and A. H. Al Badi 

 
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Sultan Qaboos University, P.O. Box 33, Muscat 132, Sultanate of 

Oman. 
 

Received 18 September 2016; Accepted 26 January 2017 
 
 

Abstract: Economic dispatch is an important optimization problem in power system planning. This 
article presents an overview of the economic dispatch formulation, its objective, loss coefficient 
determination, and a case study. In the case study, different scenarios of the economic dispatch in the 
main interconnected system (MIS) of Oman were considered to highlight the importance of 
considering losses in the optimization process. 

Keywords: Economic dispatch; Loss coefficients; Power systems; Main interconnected system. 

دراسة حالة الشبكة الرئيسة  -لألمحال  االقتصادي التوزيع الفاقد على احتساب تأثري

 املرتبطة يف سلطنة عمان

 ،ف. ن.  الفارسي، ن. حسني زاده، أ. ح. البادي*لبادي ا .م.ح
 

املقالة على تقديم حملة يعد التوزيع االقتصادي لألمحال هواملشكلة  االهم يف ختطيط نظام الكهرباء. تعمل هذه  :امللخص

عامة عن صيغة االتوزيع االقتصادي لألمحال وحتديد هدفها و معامل الفقدان  و دراسة  حالة. و يتم اخذ االعتبار يف دراسة 

احلالة هذه، سيناريوهات خمتلفة للتوزيع االقتصادي لالمحال يف النظام الرئيسي املرتابط يف عمان و ذلك لتسليط الضوء 

 احتساب الفواقد املرتتبة على عملية التحسني.على أهمية 

.الشبكة الرئيسة ،أنظمة الطاقة ،معامالت الفقدان،: التوزيع االقتصادي املفتاحية الكلمات  

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
* Corresponding author’s e-mail: mbadi@squ.edu.om 



M.H. Albadi, F.N. Al Farsi, N. Hosseinzadeh and A. H. Al Badi 

 

2 

 
Symbols and Abbrevations 
 

 
 

IPP  :  Independent Power Producer  

LFC  :  Load Frequency Control 

MIS  :  Main Interconnected System of Oman 

OETC  :  Oman Electricity Transmission Company 

OPWP  :  Oman Power and Water Procurement Company 

SAOC  :  Closed joint stock company 

𝑎𝑗 , 𝑏𝑗 , &  𝑐𝑗   : Coefficients of the quadratic cost function  

𝐵, 𝐵0, & 𝐵00  : Coefficients of the B-loss formula 

𝐹𝑙
𝑡    :  Apparent power flowing through transmission line l during the interval t 

𝐹𝑙
𝑚𝑎𝑥    : Upper limit of the power flow along line l 

𝐹𝑐𝑜𝑠𝑡    : Total operating cost  

𝐹𝑗  : Operating cost of generation unit j 

𝑁𝑔   : Total number of generation units in the power system 

𝑃𝐷     : Total power demand  

𝑃𝑗    : Output power of generation unit j 

𝑃𝑗
𝑚𝑖𝑛    : Minimum output limit of unit j 

𝑃𝑗
𝑚𝑎𝑥   : Maximum output limit of unit j 

𝑃𝐿    : Total power losses 

𝑆𝑗
𝑡    : Spinning reserve contribution of unit j during time interval t 

𝑆𝑅𝑡    : System spinning reserve requirement for interval t 

 
  



 
Effect of Considering Transmission Losses in Economic Dispatch – A Case Study of Oman’s Main Interconnected System  

 

 

 5 

1. Introduction 
 

Power systems have different types of 
generation facilities and load profiles. To 
maintain the stable operation of power systems, 
the aggregated output of online generation units 
and the total demand must be balanced in real 
time. When the net generation is higher than the 
net demand, the system frequency increases and 
vice versa (Zhu 2015). The total loads in power 
systems experience different chronological 
variations: seasonally, on weekends and 
weekdays, and within each day (during peak 
and off-peak hours) (Albadi and El-Saadany 
2011). Variations in demand occur even on a 
second-by-second basis. To cope with these 
chronological variations, the outputs of the 
different online generation units experience 
cycles of operation according to the forecasted 
net load.    
     Power systems have different operational 
planning time frames: unit commitment (weeks 
and days) (Padhy 2004), economic dispatch 
(hours) (Gaing 2003), and frequency regulation 
(minutes and seconds) (Kumar and Kothari 
2005). Unit commitment is the optimum 
selection of online dispatchable generation units 
to satisfy different operating constraints. Once 
online generation units are selected, economic 
dispatch is used to schedule the output of each 
unit to follow hourly load variations. It is worth 
mentioning that different utilities conduct 
economic dispatch at different time intervals. 
Some utilities have an hourly dispatch while 
others consider shorter dispatch intervals. 
During real-time operation, the mismatch 
between demand and scheduled generation is 
covered using regulation services. These include 
turbine-governor control and load frequency 
control (LFC). 

Figure 1 shows a system that consists of Ng 
number of generating units serving an aggregate 
electrical load. Since the combined capacity of 
these units is normally higher than that of the 
load, there exists an infinite number of output 
combinations to satisfy the load. The objective of 
the economic dispatch is to determine the output 
of each generation unit so that the total 
operating cost is minimized while relevant 
constraints are satisfied (Zhu 2015). Other 
objectives of the economic dispatch include the 
minimization of emissions, the maximization of 
profit by reducing the total cost, and the 
maintenance of system stability and security.  

If the transmission network of the power 
system under study is considered, the total 

demand that the generation units must satisfy 
includes transmission losses (George 1943). The 
value of transmission losses is a function of the 
economic dispatch decision variables, which can 
be determined using power-flow techniques 
(Saadat 1999).  However, transmission losses can 
be included in the optimization procedure using 
different methods. One of these methods is the 
loss coefficient technique.  
     The main contributions of this article includes 
modeling and simulating the main inter-
connected system (MIS) of Oman for economic 
dispatch purposes, calculating the loss 
coefficients of the system, and including losses in 
the economic dispatch of the MIS. 
     Following this introduction, the article 
presents a review of the economic dispatch 
formulation in section II. System data are 
presented in section III, and simulation results 
are discussed in section IV. Finally, the 
conclusions are presented in section V.  
 

2. Economic Dispatch Formulation 
 

2.1 Mathematical Formulation of Econo-
mic Dispatch 

     The objective function of an economic 
dispatch problem is to minimize the total 
operating cost (𝐹𝑐𝑜𝑠𝑡 ), which is the summation of 
individual generation units’ operating/fuel costs 
(𝐹𝑗 (𝑃𝑗 )) (Zhu 2015). 

 

 𝐹𝑐𝑜𝑠𝑡 = ∑ 𝐹𝑗 (𝑃𝑗 )
𝑁𝑔
𝑗=1

                                            (1) 

 
     The operating cost of each generation unit is 
given as a function of its output power (𝑃𝑗 ) and 
is modeled as a quadratic function.  
 
𝐹𝑗 (𝑃𝑗 ) = 𝑎𝑗 + 𝑏𝑗 𝑃𝑗 + 𝑐𝑗 𝑃𝑗

2                                       (2) 
 

where 𝑎𝑗 , 𝑏𝑗 , and  𝑐𝑗  represent the cost 

coefficients of the jth generating unit, 

𝑃𝑗  represents the real output of the jth generating 

  

G

Boiler/Burner Turbine Generator Fuel

G

G

1

2

P1

P2

Pn

PLoad

.

.

.

.

Ng

 
 
Figure 1. Generating units serving an electrical 

load. 

3 



M.H. Albadi, F.N. Al Farsi, N. Hosseinzadeh and A. H. Al Badi 

 

4 

unit (in MW), and 𝑁𝑔 is the total number of 
generation units in the power system under 
study. These cost coefficients can be obtained 
from the heat rate data of generation units at 
different operating points and the price of fuel. 

The optimization problem has the following 
constraints:  
 Power balance constraints 

∑ 𝑃𝑗
𝑁𝑔
𝑗=1

= 𝑃𝐷 + 𝑃𝐿              (3) 

     where 𝑃𝐷  is the power demand and 
𝑃𝐿 represents the power losses. 

 Generation unit limit 

  𝑃𝑗
𝑚𝑖𝑛 < 𝑃𝑗 < 𝑃𝑗

𝑚𝑎𝑥      𝑗 = 1 … 𝑁𝑔             (4)   

     where 𝑃𝑗
𝑚𝑖𝑛  and 𝑃𝑗

𝑚𝑎𝑥 are unit j minimum and 

maximum limits, respectively.  

 Spinning reserve requirement 
      ∑ 𝑆𝑗

𝑡 ≥𝑛𝑗=1 𝑆𝑅
𝑡         𝑡 = 1 … 𝑁                    (5) 

 
     where 𝑆𝑗

𝑡is the spinning reserve contribution 

of unit j during the time interval t, and 𝑆𝑅𝑡  is the 
system spinning reserve requirement for interval 
t. 𝑆𝑗

𝑡 can be expressed as 𝑃𝑗
𝑚𝑎𝑥 − 𝑃𝑗

𝑡  where 𝑃𝑗
𝑡  is 

unit j output during time t. 

 Network security constraints (voltage limit 
constraints, e.g. +/- 10% in the MIS (OETC 
2010). 
 

 Line capacities  
 

 𝐹𝑙
𝑡 ≤ 𝐹𝑙

𝑚𝑎𝑥 ; 𝑡 = 1 … 𝑁𝑇                 (6)                

     where 𝐹𝑙
𝑡  is the apparent power flowing 

through transmission line l during the interval t, 
and 𝐹𝑙

𝑚𝑎𝑥  is the upper limit of the power flow 
along line l.  
     It is worth mentioning that these limits are 
thermal limits of the transmission lines and can 
be found in OETC capability statement (OETC  
2014. 
 

2.2  Loss Formula 
When transmission line distances are small, 

transmission losses can be ignored and the 
optimal dispatch of generation units can be 
achieved without considering the transmission 
system losses. However, in large interconnected 
systems, transmission losses play a major role in 
the optimal dispatch of generation units. Hence, 
the transmission line losses of large networks 
need to be considered in the optimal dispatch of 
generation units.  

There are several methods by which losses 
become part of the dispatch decision. George 

was the first to develop the simplest form of the 
loss equation (George 1943): 

 
𝑃𝐿 =  ∑ ∑ 𝑃𝑚 𝐵𝑚𝑛 𝑃𝑛

𝐾
𝑚=1

𝐾
𝑛=1             (7) 

 
Alternatively, 
 

PL =  ∑ ∑ B𝑖𝑗 P𝐺𝑖 P𝐺𝑗
NG
j=1

NG
i=1             (8) 

 
where B𝑖𝑗  and 𝐵mn are called loss coefficients.  

Attempts to obtain a more accurate 
expression of power system losses were made by 
adding linear terms and a constant to the 
original expression. These resulted in the B 
matrix loss formula, which was introduced in 
the beginning of 1950s as a practical method for 
the computation of losses and incremental losses 
(Wood and Wollenberg 2012). After the addition 
of linear terms and a constant to the original 
expression, the following loss formula was 
obtained: 

 
𝑃𝐿 =  𝑃

𝑇 [𝐵]𝑃 +  𝐵0
𝑇  + 𝐵00            (9) 

where 

𝑃  is  the  vector  of all generator bus net MW,  
[𝐵] is the square matrix of the same dimension 
as P,𝐵0 is the vector of the same length as P, 𝐵00 
is the constant.  

This equation can be rewritten as follows:  
 

𝑃𝐿 =  ∑ ∑ 𝑃𝑖 𝐵𝑖𝑗 𝑃𝑗 + ∑ 𝐵𝑖0𝑃𝑖 + 𝐵00𝑖𝑗𝑖              (10) 

 
Alternatively, it can be rewritten as follows:  
 

𝑃𝐿 = ∑  ∑ 𝑃𝑚 𝐵𝑚𝑛𝑃𝑛
𝐾
𝑚=1

𝐾
𝑛=1 + ∑ 𝑃𝑛𝐵𝑛0

𝐾
𝑛=1 +   𝐵00      (11) 

 
There are three main methods for obtaining 

the loss formula coefficients (George 1943; Hill 
and Stevenson 1968; Yang, Hosseini, and 
Gandomi 2012). The first method is the tensor 
analysis method (Yang, Hosseini, and Gandomi 
2012), the second method is the 𝐴𝑗𝑛 method (Hill 

and Stevenson 1968), and the third method is the 
Kron-Kirchmayer method, which Kron 
developed and Kirchmayer adapted (Abdelaziz 
et al. 2008; Saadat 1999; Wood and Wollenberg 
2012). 

Kron 1951) presented the mathematical 
formulation of the tensor analysis method, and 
Hill and Stevenson (1968) explained the 
mathematical formulation of the 𝐴𝑗𝑛 method. 

Furthermore, George (George 1943) explained 
Kron-Kirchmayer method. Many researchers 
have used the Kron-Kirchmayer method to 



 
Effect of Considering Transmission Losses in Economic Dispatch – A Case Study of Oman’s Main Interconnected System  

 

 

 5 

determine the loss coefficients (Dike, Adinfono 
and Ogu 2013;  Su and Lin 2000; Yang, Hosseini 
and Gandomi 2012). The same method was used 
to find the loss coefficients for the system under 
consideration, that is, the main interconnected 
system of Oman. Once the coefficients were 
obtained, it was possible to determine the 
economic dispatch. It is worth mentioning that 
loss coefficients are load-specific; therefore, they 
should be updated for different loading 
conditions.  
 

3. Systems Data 
 
The test system (the main interconnected system 
of Oman) data were obtained from two sources: 
the Oman Power and Water Procurement 
Company SAOC (OPWP) (OPWP 2016a) and 
the Oman Electricity Transmission Company 
SAOC (OETC) (OETC 2016).  
 

3.1 Generation Units 
     The transmission system is supplied with 
electricity generated at eleven gas-based power 
stations (open cycle and closed cycle) at Ghubra, 
Rusail, Sur, Wadi Al Jizzi, Manah, Al Kamil, 
Barka I, Barka II, Barka III, Sohar I, and Sohar II. 
In addition, the transmission system is 
connected directly to large customers with 
generation facilities, for instance, Sohar 
Aluminium, PDO, Sohar Refinery, OMCO, and 
OMIFCO (OETC 2014).  
     Some details of the existing generation units 
are available in the recent issue of “OPWP 7-
year statement 2016-2022” (OPWP 2016b) and in 
previous issues. Other details are available in 
OETC’s “Five-Year Annual Transmission 
Capability Statement (2014-2018)” regarding the 
MIS system (OETC 2014).  Table 1 shows a 
summary of the eleven power stations 
connected to the MIS of Oman and their net 
generation capacity in 2014. 
     The fuel cost coefficients of all the generation 
units were based on estimated values from the 
heat rate curves received from OPWP. It is 
worth mentioning that, to preserve 
confidentiality, the heat rate values were 
indicative rather than actual. A price of 
$1.5/MMBtu for the fuel (natural gas) was used 
to obtain the fuel cost data. Then, a curve-fitting 
technique was used to obtain the fuel cost 
parameters for each generation unit. An 
example of a single-cycle generation unit is 
shown in Table 2 and Figure 2. The same 
procedure was conducted for all generation 
units in the system. 

3.2 Transmission System 
     The OETC owns and operates the MIS’s 
transmission network. Moreover, the OETC is 
responsible for balancing generation and 
demand at all times of the day for the 
economic dispatch of power. It accomplishes 
this role through the OETC Load Dispatch 
Centre (LDC), which is located in Al Mawaleh, 
Muscat. Currently, the system has three voltage 
levels: 132 kV, 200 kV, and 400 kV. The 
transmission system data are available in the 
OETC’s 5-year annual capability statements, for 
instance, the 2014-2018 statement (OETC 2014). 
A summary of the transmission system in 2014 
is shown in Table 3. 
     The OETC transmission system is also 
interconnected with the Sohar Aluminium 
system at 220 kV and the PDO transmission 
network at 132 kV via a single-circuit overhead 
line. The available data include the length of 
every line (km) between the substations, the 
resistance (Ω/km), the inductive reactance 
(Ω/km), and the capacitive susceptance 
(µS/km).  
     The power-flow model of the transmission 
system was built in MATLAB. Details of the 
MIS transmission system data are given in the 
appendix (Tables A1 and A2). 
 

4. Simulation Results 
 

     A case study of the Main Interconnected 
System of Oman was conducted, and it included 
losses within the dispatch decision. It is worth 
mentioning that this simulation was conducted 
to determine the optimal dispatch for the peak-
hour load of 2014. 
     The Lambda (λ) iteration method, based on 
Lagrange relaxation, is used to solve this 
optimization problem. This method starts by 
assuming an initial value for the system 
incremental fuel cost (λ), and calculating output 
power of all generation units (Pj) as a function 
of λ. Then, the value of λ is updated based on 
Newton-Raphson method considering the 
power balance mismatch. The process continues 
until the prescribed tolerance is reached (Saadat 
1999). 
     The load data for all buses were obtained 
from the OETC annual capability statement 
(OETC 2014). The details of the load are given in 
the appendix (Table A3). The MATLAB 
software package was used in this study. 
     Three scenarios were considered in the 
economic dispatch. 
 



M.H. Albadi, F.N. Al Farsi, N. Hosseinzadeh and A. H. Al Badi 

 

6 

Table 1. Power stations connected to the MIS of Oman. 

Power 
Plant 

Net 
Power 
Generatio
n (MW) 

Remarks 

Al Kamil  282 Al Kamil is an IPP and was commissioned in 2002. The station comprises 
three GE PG9171E gas turbines (site rating: 94.1 MW) operating in open 
cycle 

Manah  273 The United Power Company owns Manah. When commissioned in 1996, it 
was the first IPP to be built in Oman. The station comprises three GE 
PG6541B gas turbines (with each site rated at 28.8 MW) and two GE 
PG9171E gas turbines (ratings of 93.5 MW) 

Wadi Al 
Jizzi  

324 Wadi Al Jizzi Power Station comprises eleven gas turbines (with gross site 
ratings in the range of 19.2-32.5 MW) and all operate in open cycle. The 
units were installed progressively from 1982. 

Sohar I 605 Sohar I Power Plant is an IPP and was commissioned in 2007. There are 
three gas turbines, each with a 138.7-MW capacity, and a steam turbine 
with a 220-MW capacity. All units have been operational since 2007. 

Sohar II  745 Sohar II Power Plant is an IPP and was commissioned in 2012. There are 
two gas turbines, each with a 247.5-MW capacity, and a steam turbine with 
a 249.9-MW capacity. They have all been operational since 2013. 

Barka I 434 AES (ACWA now) commissioned Barka 1 in 2003. It was developed as an 
independent water & power plant (IWPP). The power plant comprises two 
Ansaldo V94.2 gas turbines (manufactured under licence from Siemens) 
and a steam turbine operating in combined cycle. 

Barka II 681 Barka II is an independent water & power producer (IWPP) and was 
commissioned in 2009. There are three gas turbines, each with a 130-MW 
capacity, and two steam turbines, each with a 161-MW capacity. 

Barka III  745 Barka III is an IPP and was commissioned in 2012. There are two gas 
turbines, each with a 247.5-MW capacity and a steam turbine with a 249.9-
MW capacity. They have all been operational since 2013 

Sur 2000  Sur is an IPP and was commissioned in 2014. There are five gas turbines, 
each with a 244.4-MW capacity, and three steam turbines with capacities 
ranging between 156.8 and 310.7 MW.  

Rusail 687 The power station has eight Frame 9E gas turbines installed and operating 
in open cycle. The gross site rating of the units varies from 81.5 MW to 95.9 
MW. The units were installed progressively between 1984 and 2000. 

Ghubra 406 Ghubra power plant has 2 steam turbines (each with a 29.2-MW rating) and 
12 gas turbines (with ratings ranging from 16-88.6 MW). 

 
 
Table 2. Example of estimated cost curve data 

for a 90-MW single-cycle generation 
unit. 

Operating 
point 
from 
rating 

 
Heat Rate 
(MBtu/kWh) 

Fuel 
Consumption 
(MMBtu/hr) 

Fuel 
Cost 
($/hr) 

30 % 16,467 395.5  593.20 
65 % 10,784 630.8  946.26 
100 % 10,431 938.8  1408.2 

 
 
 
 

 
 
 

 
 
Figure 2.  Estimated fuel cost parameters of a 

single-cycle generation unit. 
 
 



 
Effect of Considering Transmission Losses in Economic Dispatch – A Case Study of Oman’s Main Interconnected System  

 

 7 

In Scenario 1, losses were considered and 
calculated using B-coefficients in the Kron-
Kirchmayer method. 
 

 Scenario 2 involved simulating the current 
practice in the MIS, where losses are 
considered as a fixed load and are not 
included in the optimization procedure.  

 Scenario 3 involved simulating the system 
performance when network losses were not 
considered at all in the dispatch procedure. 

 
     Figures 4 and 5 show the output of power 
generation for different units in the Rusail, 
Ghubra, Al Kamil, Manah, and Barka I power 
plants.  Figure 4 shows the optimal output of 
power generation units for the Sohar I, Sohar II, 
Barka II, Barka III, and Sur power plants in the 
three scenarios.  
     There are some differences between the 
outputs of the generation units in the three 
scenarios. It is clear that the total dispatched 
power when the network losses are considered 
as a fixed load (Scenario 2) is higher than the 
total dispatched power associated with the two 
other scenarios in most of the power plants. 
     It is worth mentioning that considering losses 
in the optimization process (Scenario 1) requires 
slightly more execution time than other 

scenarios. A comparison of the number of 
iterations and execution time for the three 
scenarios are presented in Table 4. 
     Figure 5  shows the total dispatched power in 
MW for the three scenarios. It is clear that the 
overall power generation output when one 
considers the losses as a fixed load (Scenario 2) 
is higher than the optimal dispatch power 
generation when one considers the network loss 
using B coefficients (Scenario 1) by 48 MW. This 
result demonstrates that transmission losses 
should be considered in the economic dispatch 
process in the MIS.  
     Figure 6 shows the overall fuel cost 
comparison of Scenarios 1 and 2. The overall 
cost of power generation when one considers 
the losses using B coefficients (Scenario 1) is 
lower than the overall cost of the optimal 
dispatch of power generation when one 
considers the losses as a fixed load (Scenario 2) 
by $645.62/hr. However, as was mentioned, the 
generation units’ cost data were merely 
indicative values, not their actual values.  
     Figure 7 presents a comparison of the results 
of the current dispatch practice and those of the 
proposed dispatch practice that considers the 
network losses for each power station in the 
MIS. 

 
Table 3. OETC transmission system assets. 

Asset  Size Quantity/Units 

Overhead 
Transmission 
Lines  

220 kV  1,454.4 Circuit-km  

132 kV  3,051.06 Circuit-km  

Underground 
Cables  

220 kV  61.6 Circuit-km  

132 kV  98.681 Circuit-km  

Transformer 
Capacity  

220/132  8,630 MVA 

220/33 320 MVA 

132/33 10,541 MVA 

132/11 150 MVA 

Interconnection 
Grid Stations  

 
220  

 
Five  

Grid Stations 220/132 Two 

220/33 One 

220/132/33 Seven  

132/33 Forty 

132/11 One 

 
 



M.H. Albadi, F.N. Al Farsi, N. Hosseinzadeh and A. H. Al Badi 

 

8 

 
  

 

Figure 3. Dispatched power for the three scenarios (Rusail, Ghubra, Al Kamil, Manah, and Barka I 
power plants). 

 
Figure 4. Dispatched power for the three scenarios (Sohar I, Sohar II, Barka II, Barka III, and Sur 

power plants). 

Figure 5.  Comparison between the three scenarios’ total dispatched power values. 

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tp
u

t 
(M

W
) 

Scenario 1 Scenario 3 Scenario 2

4

4.2

4.4

4.6

T
o
ta

l 
D

is
p

a
tc

h
e
d

 P
o
w

e
r 

(M
W

) 

T
h

o
u

sa
n

d
s 

Scenario 3

Scenario 1

Scenario 2



 
Effect of Considering Transmission Losses in Economic Dispatch – A Case Study of Oman’s Main Interconnected System  

 

 9 

 

 
Figure 6. Comparison between the overall costs associated with Scenario 1 and Scenario 2. 

 

 
Figure 7.  Comparison of the current dispatch practice and the proposed dispatch practice. 
 
Table 4. Computational requirements of 

different scenarios. 

Scenarios Scenario 
1 

Scenario 
2 

Scenario 
3 

Number of 
iteration 

9 6 5 

Execution 
time 

6.03 s 5.74 s 4.97 s 

     Simulation results show that the outputs of 
some power plants, such as Sohar II, Barka III, 
Barka II, and Manah, are more in line with 
Scenario 1 (the proposed practice) than the 
current practice of OETC LDC. On the other 
hand, the current practice results in the 
production of more power in other power 
plants, for instance, the Rusail, Ghubra, Wadi Al 
Jizzi, Al Kamil, Barka I, and Sohar 1 power 
plants.  
     These differences are attributable to (1) the 
inclusion of losses in the optimization 
procedure of Scenario 1 and (2) failure to consi- 

 
der water production and voltage support 
requirements in the simulation.   
 

5. Conclusion 
 

In this paper,  the economic dispatch problem, 
its formulation, and its objectives and 
constraints were reviewed. The main 
interconnected system (MIS) of Oman was 
modelled to find the optimal dispatch of power 
generation at a selected hour on a selected day 
using the MATLAB software package. 
Furthermore, different methods for obtaining 
network loss coefficients were discussed. The 
loss coefficients of the MIS were determined 
and the optimal dispatch of the power 
generation units was found, taking the losses 
into consideration. This was compared with the 
current practice of dispatching generation units. 
It was demonstrated that considering the losses 
in the optimization procedure resulted in the 

50

51

52

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

F
u

e
l 

C
o
st

 (
T

h
o
u

sa
n

d
s 

$
/h

r)
 

Scenario 1

Scenario 2

0

200

400

600

800

P
o
w

e
r 

P
la

n
t 

o
u

tp
u

t 
(M

W
) 

OETC LDC Dispatch

Simulation Results of Scenario 1



M.H. Albadi, F.N. Al Farsi, N. Hosseinzadeh and A. H. Al Badi 

 

10 

reduction of the total dispatched power, 
reducing the cost by $645/hr.  
 

Conflict of Interest 
 
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. 
 

Funding 
 
No funding was received for this research. 

 
Acknowledgment 
 
     The authors would like to acknowledge the 
Oman Electricity Transmission Company 
(OETC) and the Oman Power and Water 
Procurement Company (OPWP) for supporting 
this work and for providing the data used in the 
simulation.     
 

References 
 
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Gaing, Zwe-Lee. 2003. 'Particle swarm 
optimization to solving the economic 
dispatch considering the generator 
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George, EE. 1943. 'Intrasystem transmission 
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Hill, Eugene F, and William D Stevenson. 1968. 
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coefficients', IEEE Transactions on Power 
Apparatus and Systems: 1548-53. 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Kron, Gabriel. 1951. 'Tensorial Analysis of 
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Electrical Engineers, 70: 1239-48. 

Kumar, Prabhat, and Dwarka P Kothari. 2005. 
Recent philosophies of automatic 
generation control strategies in power 
systems, IEEE Transactions on Power 
Systems, 20: 346-57. 

OETC (2010),  The Grid Code, Version 2.  
OETC (2014),  Five-year annual transmission 

capability statement (2014 - 2018). Muscat.  
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Company SAOC website. https://www. 
omangrid.com/SitePages/Home.aspx. 

OPWP (2016a),  Oman Power and Water 
Procurement Company SAOC website. 
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aspx. 

OPWP (2016b), OPWP 7-year statement (2016-
2022). Muscat. 

Padhy, Narayana Prasad. 2004. 'Unit 
commitment-a bibliographical survey', 
IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, 19: 
1196-205. 

Saadat, Hadi. 1999. Power system analysis 
(WCB/McGraw-Hill). 

Su, Ching-Tzong, and Chien-Tung Lin. 2000. 
'New approach with a Hopfield modeling 
framework to economic dispatch', IEEE 
Transactions on Power Systems, 15: 541-45. 

Wood, Allen J, and Bruce F Wollenberg. 2012. 
Power generation, operation, and control (John 
Wiley & Sons). 

Yang, Xin-She, Seyyed Soheil Sadat Hosseini, 
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economic dispatch problems with valve 
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1180-86. 

Zhu, Jizhong. 2015. Optimization of power system 
operation (John Wiley & Sons). 

 

http://www.omanpwp.com/new/Default.aspx
http://www.omanpwp.com/new/Default.aspx


Effect of Considering Transmission Losses in Economic Dispatch – A Case Study of Oman’s Main Interconnected System  

 

11 

 
 

Appendix 
 
Table A-1. MIS 2014 Overhead Line Data. 

From 
Substation  

To 
Substation  

Voltage 
(kV) 

Length 
 (Km)  

R 
[Ω/km]  

X 
[Ω/km]  

B 
[µS/km]  

Barka Power station  Filaj  220  10  0.0258  0.321  3.82  
Barka Power station  Filaj  220  10  0.0258  0.321  3.82  
Filaj  Airport Heights  220  34  0.0258  0.321  3.82  
Airport Heights  Misfah  220  16  0.0258  0.321  3.82  
Misfah  MSQ  220  26  0.0258  0.321  3.82  
Misfah  Jahloot  220  54.9  0.0258  0.321  3.82  
MIS  SIS  220  107  0.0258  0.321  3.82  
SPS  SIS  220  38  0.0258  0.321  3.82  
Al Wasit  SIS  220  66  0.0258  0.321  3.82  
Blue City  MIS  220  45.3  0.0258  0.321  3.82  
Filaj  Blue City  220  33.2  0.0258  0.321  3.82  
Al Wasit  Ibri  220  145  0.0258  0.321  3.82  
Sohar IPP-2  SIS  220  36.9  0.0258  0.321  3.82  
Barka IPP-3  Misfah  220  58.2  0.0258  0.321  3.82  
Al Kamil  JBB Ali  132  55  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Al Kamil  Mudharib  132  51.2  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Al Kamil  Sur  132  73.1  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Barka Main  Filaj  132  6.3  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Dank  Al Hail  132  52.6  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Filaj  Muladha  132  46.5  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Izki  Mudaybi  132  62.1  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Izki  Nizwa  132  31.1  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Manah  Nizwa  132  19.7  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Airport Heights  Seeb Main  132  7.8  0.1472  0.4111  2.6  
MIS  Khabourah  132  53.4  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Mabalah  Barka Main  132  11.6  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
MS Qaboos  Jahloot  132  44  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
MS Qaboos  Wadi Adai  132  8.2  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Mudhabi  Mudharib  132  60.1  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Muladha  MIS  132  11.4  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Nizwa  Bahla  132  32  0.0857  0.3948  2.85  
Nizwa  Ibri  132  123.5  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Rusail  Mabalah  132  13.1  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Rusail  Sumail  132  31.2  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Rustaq  Muladha  132  29.5  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
SIS  Sohar Grid  132  27.5  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Sohar Grid  Wadi Jizzi  132  24.7  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Sumail  Izki  132  61  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Wadi Adai  Al Falaj  132  3  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Wadi Jizzi  Al Wasit  132  36.7  0.0972  0.3168  3.8  
Wadi Kabir  Wadi Adai  132  6  0.0857  0.3948  2.85  
Manah  Adam  132  47  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Boushar  MS Qaboos  132  1.7  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Ghubrah  MS Qaboos  132  1.7  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Wadi Jizzi  Liwa  132  28  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Liwa  Shinas  132  20  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Khabourah  Saham  132  40  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Saham  SIS  132  30  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  



M.H. Albadi, F.N. Al Farsi, N. Hosseinzadeh and A. H. Al Badi 

 

12 

Al Wasit  Wadi Sa'a  132  32.0  0.1503  0.4101  2.83  
Wadi Sa'a  Dank  132  56.5  0.1503  0.4101  2.83  
Jahloot  Yitti  132  25.1  0.0258  0.321  3.82  
Rusail  Misfah  132  10.0  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Misfah  Wadi Adai  132  36.0  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Filaj  Nakhal  132  26.0  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Al Wasit  Buraimi  132  30.73  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
MS Qaboos  Qurum  132  10  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Qurum  Muttrah  132  10  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Ibri  Dank  132  55  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  
Jahloot  Quriyat  132  50  0.04283  0.2821  3.98  

 
 

Table A-2. 2014 MIS cable data. 

From  
Substation  

To  
Substation  

Voltage  
(kV) 

Length 
(km)  

R 
[Ω/km]  

X 
[Ω/km]  

B 
[µS/km]  

SPS  SIS  220  3  0.01074  0.312  91.11  
SPS  Sohar Industrial 

Area 'A'  
220  3  0.01074  0.321  91.11  

Blue City  MIS  220  6  0.01074  0.321  91.11  
Filaj  Blue City  220  6  0.01074  0.312  91.11  
Sohar IPP-2  SIS  220  2.6  0.01074  0.321  91.11  
Barka IPP-3  Misfah  220  10.2  0.01074  0.321  91.11  
Airport Heights  Seeb Main  132  9  0.04282  0.08361  122.522  
Mawellah  Rusail  132  7.3  0.04282  0.08361  122.522  
Sohar Industrial 
Area 'A'  

Sohar Refinery Co.  132  2.2  0.04  0.08  122.52  

Wadi Kabir  Wadi Adai  132  1.63  0.04  0.143  64.7  
Ghubrah  Boushar  132  2.323  0.04  0.08  122.52  
Boushar  MS Qaboos  132  1.5  0.04  0.08  122.52  
Ghubrah  MS Qaboos  132  4.8  0.04  0.08  122.52  
Airport Heights  Wave  132  8.806  0.04  0.08  122.52  
Al Wasit  Buraimi  132  5.47  0.04  0.08  122.52  
Qurum  Muttrah  132  3.5  0.04  0.08  122.52  

 

Table A-3. Peak Load and Capacitor Data in 2014. 

Grid Stations P Load (MW) Q Load (MVAr) Cap (MVAr) 

Barka-132 kV 165 16 25 
Nakhal-132 kV 62 6 25 

Blue City – 220 kV 53 16 0 
MIS – 132 kV 141 23 0 

Muladah – 132 kV 134 5 30 
Rustaq – 132 kV 117 7 0 

Khabourah-132 kV 153 23 10 
Saham 132 kV 112 15 0 

SIA 220 kV -40 -4.9 0 
SIA 132 kV 47 8 0 

Sohar main 132 kV 164 20 20 
Liwa 132 kV 138 24 0 

Shinas 85 15 25 
Mahdah – 132 kV 12 7 0 
Burimi 1 - 132 kV 50 8 0 
Burimi 2 – 132 kV 50 8 35 
Wadi Saa – 132 kV 11 6 0 



 
Effect of Considering Transmission Losses in Economic Dispatch – A Case Study of Oman’s Main Interconnected System  

 

 13 

Dank -132 kV 18 2 10 
Al Hail – 132 kV 52 9 10 

Ibri – 132 kV 104 9 10 
Nizwa and PDO load connected to Nizwa 139 18 0 

Bahla 104 9 0 
Izki 61 14 0 

Adam 39 2 0 
Samail 78 17 0 

Mudabi 110 18 0 
Mudayrib 141 4 0 

JBB 143 1 0 
Sur and Omifco Load 117 4 0 

MSQ – 132 kV 135 16 35 
Old Gubrah 20 11 0 

New Ghubrah 74 33 0 
Bosher – 132 kV 226 36 40 

Airport Hight – 132 kV 87 9 30 
Mwalleh North – Authibah 14 1 0 

Rusail PS – 132 kV 121 34.2 0 
Misfah 5 13 0 

Wadi Adai 121 19 35 
Al Falaj 68 10 35 

Wadi Kabeer 110 18 35 
Matrah 47 25 0 
Qurum 18 9 20 

Mwalleh south-1 210 16 20 
Seeb 132 kV 133 42 0 

Mobillah 104 12 30 
Jahloot 76 7 25 

Yitti 15 3 0 
Quryat 45 -11 0 

 
 

 
 
 

Figure A-1. MIS transmission system in 2014.