The demand of peak regulation is gradually growing along with the access of large-scale renewable energy and the gradual increase of electricity peak-valley difference

while the power source for peak regulation is insufficient due to the unreasonable power source structure in China

which causes difficulties in peak regulation of power grid. The deep peak regulation ability of thermal power units is deeply excavated

and their operation characteristics are analyzed. On the basis of conventional optimization model

the constraints such as operation time in stationary segment of deep peak regulation output and minimum deep peak regulation time are introduced

the conventional constraints such as maximum and minimum unit output and ramping are improved

and an optimal real-time generation scheduling model with the consideration of deep peak regulation of thermal power units is built. The practical operation data of Guangdong Power Grid is used for case analysis

and the results meet the requirement of practical power grid operation.