Methods and systems for enhancing control of power plant generating units

A system including:

• a power plant comprising thermal generating units that are operated collectively over an operating period to generate a plant output level for distribution to a market, wherein:
• the power plant comprises multiple possible operating modes for generating the plant output level during the operating period;
• and
• each of the possible operating modes is differentiated from the others of the possible operating modes by a unique schedule, the schedule including at least one of a plant operational schedule and a plant maintenance schedule;
• a hardware processor;
• and
• a machine readable storage medium on which is stored a power plant model and instructions that cause the hardware processor to execute a process related to optimizing the schedule of the power plant during a selected operating period, wherein the process includes:
• receiving the selected operating period, the selected operating period comprising a future one of the operating periods of the power plant;
• selecting ones of the possible operating modes as competing operating modes for the power plant during the selected operating period, wherein the selection of the competing operating modes from the possible operating modes is made according to a selection criteria;
• with the power plant model, simulating the operation of the power plant during the selected operating period for each of the competing operating modes and deriving simulation results from each of the simulations;
• evaluating each of the simulation results pursuant to a cost function and, based thereupon, designating at least one of the competing operating modes as an optimized operating mode;
• and
• communicating at least one recommendation that relates to the optimized operating mode.