Consistency evaluation in an operational environment involving many transactions

Energy transactions between electric power companies are commonly used to reduce operating costs. With movements toward a further de-regulated power industry, the number and importance of contracts are expected to increase. This paper proposes a new method to quickly and systematically evaluate potential contracts. A fundamental concern of contract analysis is whether or not the contract is feasible, i.e., if the terms of the contract, can be met without violating system operating constraints or prior contractual constraints. The novel features of our approach are a model of the essential components of a contract using rules and a contract consistency checking algorithm based on rule inference techniques. An example shows how the method is used to evaluate the consistency of a potential contract with existing contracts and other system constraints. The proposed method can help avoid tedious contract evaluation tasks while systematically ensuring that all constraints are met.