128

IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 9, No. 1, February 1994

UNIT COMMITMENT LITERATURE SYNOPSIS
Gerald B. Sheble, Senior Member George N. Fahd, Member
Dept of Electrical Engineering
Decision Focus Incorporated
Iowa State University Lo s Altos, CA 94022
Ames, Iowa 50011
ABSTRACT
Sever al opt i mi zat i on t echni ques have been
appl i ed t o t he sol ut i on of t he t her mal uni t
commi t ment pr obl em. They r ange f r om
heur i st i cs such as compl et e enumer at i on t o t he
mor e sophi st i cat ed ones such as Augment ed
LaGr angi an. The heur i st i cs have even
r eappear ed as exper t syst ems. The pr obl emt o
sol ve i s t he opt i mal schedul i ng of gener at i ng
uni t s over a shor t - t er mhor i zon, t ypi cal l y 168
hour s. Thi s paper i s an over vi ew of t he
l i t er at ur e i n t he uni t commi t ment f i el d over
t he past t went y f i ve year s.
Kevwor ds : Uni t commi t ment , enumer at i on,
br anch- and- bound, dynami c pr ogr ammi ng, l i near
pr ogr ammi ng, i nt eger pr ogr ammi ng, separ abl e
pr ogr ammi ng, Lagr angi an r el axat i on, augment ed
Lagr angi an, si mul at ed anneal i ng, exper t
syst ems, and ar t i f i ci al neur al net wor ks.
I NTRODUCTI ON
Uni t Commi t ment ( UC) i s t he pr obl em of
det er mi ni ng t he schedul e of gener at i ng uni t s
wi t hi n a power syst emsubj ect t o devi ce and
oper at i ng const r ai nt s. The deci si on pr ocess
sel ect s uni t s t o be on or of f , t he t ype of
f uel , t he power gener at i on f or each uni t , t he
f uel mi xt ur e when appl i cabl e, and t he r eser ve
mar gi ns.
The gener i c UC pr obl emcan be f or mul at ed as:
Mi ni mi ze Oper at i onal Cost
Subj ect to:
Mi ni mumup- t i me and down- t i me const r ai nt s
Cr ewconst r ai nt s
amp r at e l i mi t s
Uni t capabi l i t y l i mi t s
Der at i on of uni t s
Uni t st at us
Gener at i on const r ai nt s
Reser ve const r ai nt s
The obj ect i ve f unct i on i s oper at i onal cost s
gr ouped i nt o t he f ol l owi ng cat egor i es:
1. Fuel cost s: They ar e r epr esent ed by an
I nput / Out put (1/0) cur ve t hat i s model ed
wi t h a pol ynomi al cur ve ( nor mal l y a
quadr at i c or r educed cubi c) , a pi ecewi se
const ant cur ve, or a pi ecewi se l i near
cur ve. The f uel cost equat i on f or uni t I
i s descr i bed by:
93 WM 155-2 PWRS A paper recommended and approved
FCl ( Pl ) = FI * HI ( P l )
wher e
Pl i s t he power l evel (MW)
FCl ( Pl ) i s t he f uel cost ( $/ h)
Fl I s t he f uel cost ( $/ MBTu)
Hl ( Pl ) i s t he heat r at e cur ve ( MBTu/ h)
2 . The mai nt enance cost i s descr i bed by:
MCl ( PI ) = BMI + I MI PI
wher e
MCl ( P1 ) i s t he mai nt enance cost
BMl i s t he base mai nt enance cost
I Ml i s t he i ncr ement al mai nt enance cost
sTI = T S~F ~ + (1 - e( - Di / ASi ) ) ~~l ~l + MS ~
3 . The st ar t up cost i s descr i bed by:
wher e
TSl i s t he t ur bi ne st ar t up ener gy ( MBTu)
Dl i s t he number of
ASl i s t he boi l er cool - down coef f i ci ent
BSI I s t he boi l er st ar t up ener gy ( MBTu)
MSl i s t he st ar t up mai nt enance cost
The most nonl i near const r ai nt s ar e t he mi ni mum
up- t i me and down- t i me r est r i ct i ons. I f a uni t
must be on f or a cer t ai n number of hour s
bef or e i t can shut of f , t hen a mi ni mumup- t i me
i s set . By cont r ast , mi ni mumdown- t i me i s t he
number of hour s a uni t must be of f - l i ne bef or e
i t can be br ought on- l i ne agai n. Vi ol at i on of
a down t i me const r ai nt may be al l evi at ed by
banki ng or i dl i ng t he uni t . The pr eci se
def i ni t i on of such i nt er medi at e t er ms has not
been gener al l y r epor t ed.
Cr ew const r ai nt s per t ai n t o t he number of
uni t s t hat can st ar t at t he same t i me i n a
par t i cul ar pl ant . The r amp r at e l i mi t s
r est r i ct t he movement of a gener at i ng uni t
bet ween adj acent hour s. The upper and l ower
l i mi t s on t he gener at i ng uni t s f or ce t hemt o
oper at e wi t hi n t hei r boundar i es. The der at i on
of uni t s can change t he upper uni t l i mi t . The
st at us of each gener at i ng uni t i s one of t he
f ol l owi ng:
1. Uni t can cycl e on or of f ( Avai l abl e) .
2 . Uni t can be out aged due t o mai nt enance or
3 . uni t can be f or ced t o r un ( Must - Run) .
4. Uni t can have a f i xed out put ( Fi xed) .
5. Uni t t hat may be br ought on- l i ne qui ckl y
wi t h no r egar d t o mi ni mumup- or down- t i me
const r ai nt s ( Peaker s/ Gas Tur bi nes) .
hour s down
ot her unf or eseen pr obl ems ( Out aged) .
by the IEEE Power System Engineering Committee of
the IEEE Power Engineering Society for presentation
at the IEEE/PES 1993 Winter Meeting, Columbus, OH,
January 31 - February 5, 1993. Manuscript submitted
January 28, 1992; made available for printing r eser ves.
I n addi t i on t o t he above const r ai nt s, t he
gener at or s must sat i sf y t he syst em l oad and
l osses and pr ovi de t he r eady and spi nni ng
November 4 , 1992.
I
Publ i cat i ons I n t he uni t commi t ment f i el d have
abounded over t he l ast t went y f i ve year s.
Thi s paper i nt ends t o summar i ze t he di f f er ent
met hods used i n t he sol ut i on of t he UC pr obl em
0885-8950/94/$04,00 0 1993 IEEE
_.,...., ~. . . . . . . . . . . . . , .. , .
, , ...~-_,-- ,.. .I. .1_. . . . .I_ -. ,._ . - .. .
129
dur i ng t hi s per i od. For each met hod, t he
avai l abl e paper s wi l l be r evi ewed.
The r ef er ence j our nal s f r om whi ch t he
publ i cat i ons ar e ext r act ed are:
I EEE t r ansact i ons on Power Appar at us and
Syst ems
I EEE t r ansact i ons on Power Syst ems
I EEE t r ansact i ons on Aut omat i c Cont r ol
I EEE Pr oceedi ngs
AI EE Tr ansact i ons
I EE Pr oceedi ngs, Par t C
El ect r i c Power Syst ems Resear ch J our nal
Oper at i ons Resear ch
I nt er f aces
Amer i can Power Conf er ence Pr oceedi ngs
I FAC Symposi umon l ar ge scal e syst ems
PI CA Pr oceedi ngs
GENERAL
The backgr ound i nf or mat i on per t ai ni ng t o t he
opt i mi zat i on t echni ques ar e di scussed i n
sever al r ef er ences. Some of t he r ef er ences
Cohen, A. I . and Sher kat , V. R. ,
"Opt i mi zat i on- Based Met hods f or Oper at i on
Schedul i ng, " Pr oceedi ngs of t he I EEE,
Vol . 75, pp. 1574- 1591, December 1987.
Wood, A. J . and Wol l enber g, B. F. , Power
Gener at i on. Oper at i on and Cont r ol , J ohn
Wi l ey and Sons, New Yor k, N. Y. , 1984.
Hi l l i er , F. S. , and Li eber man, G. J . ,
I nt r oduct i on ODer at i ons Resear ch,
Hol den- Day, I nc. , Oakl and, CA, 1990.
Bazar aa, M. S. , J ar vi s, J . J . , and Sher al i ,
H. D. , Li near Pr oar ammi n and Net wor k
Fl ows, J ohn Wi l ey- and Sgons, New Yor k,
Nemhauser , G. L. , and Wol sey, L. A. ,
I nt eaer Combi nat or i al ODt i mi zat i on,
J ohn Wi l ey and Sons, New Yor k, N. Y. ,
1988.
Nemhauser , G. L. , I nt r oduct i on &Q Dvnami c
Pr oar ammi ng, J ohn Wi l ey and Sons, New
Yor k, N. Y. , 1966.
Lasdon, L. S. , mzat f or Lar ue
Scal e Svst ems, M%%k?f%v Yor k, N. Y. ,
1970.
Luenber ger , D. G. , I nt r oduct i on t o Li near
and Nonl i near Pr o r ammi ng,
Addi son- Wesl ey, Readi ng, MA, 1973.
Cooper , L. and St ei nber g, D. , Met hods and
ADDl i cat i ons of Li near Pr oar ammi ng, W. B.
Saunder s, Phi l adel phi a, PA, 1974.
Gi l l , P. E. and Mur r ay, W. , Pr act i cal
ODt i mi zat i on, Academi c Pr ess, New Yor k,
N. Y. , 1981.
J ensen, P. A. and Bar nes, J . W. , Net wor k
Fl ow Pr oar ammi nq, J ohn Wi l ey and Sons,
New Yor k, N. Y. , 1980.
N. Y. , 1990.
Ref er ence 1 i s a gener al summar y of t he
t echni ques used f or t hi s pr obl em. Ref er ence 2
i s t he now cl assi c t ext . Ref er ences 3 t hr ough
11 ar e var i ous Oper at i ons Resear ch t ext s, i n
or der , whi ch t he aut hor s have f ound usef ul .
EXHAUSTI VE ENUMERATI ON
The UC pr obl em may be sol ved by enumer at i ng
al l possi bl e combi nat i ons of t he gener at i ng
uni t s. Once t hi s pr ocess i s compl et e, t he
combi nat i on t hat yi el ds t he l east cost of
oper at i on i s chosen as t he opt i mal sol ut i on.
Thi s met hod f i nds t he opt i mal sol ut i on once
al l t he syst emconst r ai nt s and condi t i ons ar e
consi der ed. The f i r st t wo paper s ar e or i gi nal
at t empt s t o r educe t he pr obl emt o mat hemat i cal
t erms.
Ker r , R. H. , Schei dt , J . L. . Font ana, A. J . ,
J r . , and Wi l ey , J . K. , "Uni t Commi t ment ,
I EEE Tr ansact i ons on PAS- 85, No. 5, pp.
417- 421, May 1966.
Har a, K. , Ki mur a, M. , and Honda, N. , " A
Met hod f or Pl anni ng Economi c Uni t
Commi t ment and Mai nt enance of Ther mal
Power Syst ems, 'I I EEE Tr ansact i ons on
PAS- 85, No. 5, pp. 427- 436, May 1966.
Happ, H. H. , J ohnson, R. C. , and Wr i ght ,
W. J . , "Lar ge Scal e Hydr o- Ther mal Uni t
Commt i ment Met hod and Resul t s, I EEE
Tr ansact i ons on PAS- 90, No. 3, pp.
1373- 1384, May/ J une 1971.
PRI ORI TY LI ST
Thi s met hod ar r anges t he gener at i ng uni t s i n a
st ar t - up heur i st i c or der i ng by oper at i ng cost
combi ned wi t h t r ansi t i on cost s. The
pr e- det er mi ned or der i s t hen used t o commi t
t he uni t s such t hat t he syst em l oad i s
sat i sf i ed. Var i at i ons on t hi s t echni que
dynami cal l y r ank t he uni t s sequent i al l y. The
r anki ng pr ocess i s based on speci f i c
gui del i nes. The Commi t ment Ut i l i zat i on Fact or
( CUF) and t he cl assi cal economi c i ndex Aver age
Ful l - Load Cost ( AFLC) can al so be combi ned t o
det er mi ne t he pr i or i t y commi t ment or der . The
CUF met hod can be appl i ed t o ei t her a
si ngl e- ar ea UC or a mul t i - ar ea uC.
Shoul t s, R. R. , Chang, S. K. , Hel mi ck, S. ,
and Gr ady, W. M. , " A Pr act i cal Appr oach t o
Uni t Commi t ment , Economi c Di spat ch, and
Savi ngs Al l ocat i on f or Mul t i pl e- Ar ea Pool
Oper at i on wi t h I mpor t / Expor t
Const r ai nt s, It I EEE Tr ansact i ons on
PAS- 99, No. 2 , pp. 625- 633, Mar ch/ Apr i l
1980.
Lee, F. N. , "Shor t - Ter mUni t Commi t ment -
A New Met hod, " I EEE Tr ansact i ons on
Lee, F. N. , "The Appl i cat i on of Commi t ment
Ut i l i zat i on Fact or ( CUF) t o Ther mal Uni t
Commi t ment , " I EEE Tr ansact i ons on PWRS- 6,
Lee, F. N. and Feng, Q., "Mul t i - Ar ea Uni t
Commi t ment , " I EEE Tr ansact i ons on PWRS,
Paper 91 WM 180- 0, New Yor k, 1991.
heur i st i c of or der i ng can be t r ansl at ed
r ul es and execut ed as an exper t svst emas
PWRS- 3, NO. 2, pp. 421- 428, May 1988.
NO. 2, pp. 691- 698, May 1991.
not ed bel ow. Thus any of t hese Sechni hes can
be t r eat ed as exper t syst emappr oaches si mpl y
by usi ng an exper t syst emt ool .
DYNAMI C PROGRAMMI NG
Dynami c Pr ogr ammi ng ( DP) sear ches t he sol ut i on
space t hat consi st s. of t he uni t s st at us f or an
130
opt i mal sol ut i on. The sear ch can proceed i n a
f or war d or backwar d di r ect i on. The t i me
per i ods of t he st udy hor i zon ar e known as t he
st ages of t he DP pr obl em. Typi cal l y each
st age r epr esent s one hour of oper at i on. The
combi nat i ons of uni t s wi t hi n a t i me peri od ar e
known as t he st at es of t he DP pr obl em.
For war d DP f i nds t he most economi cal schedul e
by st ar t i ng at t he i ni t i al st age accumul at i ng
t ot al cost s, t hen backt r acki ng f r om t he
combi nat i on of l east accumul at ed cost st ar t i ng
at t he l ast st age and endi ng at t he i ni t i al
st age.
DP bui l ds and eval uat es t he compl et e deci si on
t r ee t o opt i mi ze t he pr obl em at hand. Thus,
DP suf f er s f r omt he "cur se of di mensi onal i t y"
because t he pr obl em gr ows r api dl y wi t h t he
number of gener at i ng uni t s t o be commi t t ed.
To r educe t he sear ch space and hence t he
di mensi on of t he DP pr obl em, sever al
appr oaches have been adopt ed. Most appr oaches
ar e based on t he above Pr i or i t y Li st
t echni ques.
One such met hod uses t he pr i or i t y l i st
or der i ng wher e t he l east cost l y uni t s t o
oper at e ar e commi t t ed f i r st and t he most
cost l y uni t s ar e commi t t ed l ast . I n t hi s
case, t he pr obl em i s reduced by consi der i ng
combi nat i ons of uni t s sequent i al l y t ur ned on
( of f ) i n pr i or i t y l i st or der . Not e t hat
unavai l abl e, must - r un, f i xed, and peaki ng
uni t s ar e excl uded f r omt he pr esent pr i or i t y
l i st . Anot her appr oach i s t o adopt a var i abl e
pr i or i t y or der i ng scheme by or gani zi ng t he
gener at i ng uni t s i nt o cl asses wi t hi n whi ch t he
uni t s ar e pr i or i t i zed. A t hr eshol d and a
wi ndow ar e def i ned i n each cl ass t o det er mi ne
whi ch uni t s ar e aut omat i cal l y commi t t ed
( t hr eshol d) , whi ch uni t s ar e eval uat ed f or
commi t ment ( wi ndow) , and whi ch uni t s ar e not
consi der ed at al l .
[ 19] Lower y, P. G. , "Gener at i ng Uni t Commi t ment
Tr ansact i ons on PAS- 85, No. 5, pp.
[ 20] Guy, J . D. , "Secur i t y Const r ai ned Uni t
Commi t ment , " I EEE Tr ansact i ons on PAS- 90,
No. 3, pp. 1385- 1389, May/ J une 1971.
[ 21] Le, K. D. , Day, J . T. , Cooper , B. L. , and
Gi bbons, E. W. , "A Gl obal Opt i mi zat i on
Met hod f or Schedul i ng Ther mal Gener at i on,
Hydr o Gener at i on, and Economy Pur chases, "
I EEE Tr ansact i ons on PAS- 102, No. 7, pp.
[ 22] Kusi c, G. L. and Put nam, H. A. , "Di spat ch
and Uni t Commi t ment I ncl udi ng Commonl y
Owned Uni t s, 'I I EEE Tr ansact i ons on
PAS- 104, No. 9, pp. 2408- 2412, Sept ember
1985.
by Dynami c Pr ogr ammi ng, I EEE
422- 426, May 1966.
1986- 1993, J ul y 1983.
[ 23] Snyder , W. L. , Powel l , H. D. , J r . , and
Raybur n, J . C. , "Dynami c Pr ogr ammi ng
Appr oach t o Uni t Commi t ment , I' I EEE
Tr ansact i ons on PWRS- 2, No. 2, pp.
339- 350, May 1987.
[ 24] Hobbs, W. J . , Her mon, G. , War ner , S., and
Shebl B, G. B. , "An Enhanced Dynami c
Pr ogr ammi ng Appr oach f or Uni t
Commi t ment , " I EEE Tr ansact i ons on PWRS- 3,
NO. 3 , pp. 1201- 1205, August 1988.
[ 25] Tong, S. K. and Shahi dehpour , S. M. ,
"Hydr ot her mal Uni t Commi t ment wi t h
Pr obabi l i st i c Const r ai nt s Usi ng
Segment at i on Met hod, " I EEE Tr ansact i ons
on PWRS- 5, No. 1. pp. 276- 282, Febr uar y
1990.
[ 26] Hsu, Y. Y. , Su, C. C. , Li ang, C. C. , Li n,
C. J . , and Huang, C. T. , "Dynami c Secur i t y
Const r ai ned Mul t i - Ar ea Uni t Commi t ment , "
I EEE Tr ansact i ons on PWRS- 6, No. 3 , pp.
Tr uncat ed DP i s anot her at t empt at r educi ng
t he si ze of t he DP pr obl em. I n t hi s case, a
smal l por t i on of t he sol ut i on space i s
consi der ed wi t hi n pr i or i t y l i st or der i ng. The
pot ent i al uneconomi cal commi t ment schedul es
ar e t hen t r uncat ed.
[ 27] Pang, C. K. and Chen, H. C. , "Opt i mal
Shor t - Ter mTher mal Uni t Commi t ment , " I EEE
Tr ansact i ons on PAS- 95, No. 4, pp.
1336- 1346, J ul y/ December 1976.
[ 28] Pang, C. K. , Shebl B, G. B. , and Al buyeh,
F. , "Eval uat i on of Dynami c Pr ogr ammi ng
Based Met hods and Mul t i pl e Ar ea
Repr esent at i on f or Ther mal Uni t
Commi t ment s, I' I EEE Tr ansact i ons on
PAS- 100, No. 3, pp. 1212- 1218, Mar ch
1981.
Ref er ence 24 pr esent ed a basi c obser vat i on
whi ch has not been addr essed by ot her DP
appr oaches. Si mpl y st at ed, t he aut hor s
r epor t ed t hat t he pr i nci pal of opt i mal i t y was
f ound t o be vi ol at ed by t he syst em under
st udy. Speci f i cal l y, i t was mor e opt i mal t o
save sub- opt i mal sol ut i ons dur i ng t he f or war d
pr ocess. Such an obser vat i on cl ear l y
quest i ons t he use of DP f or t hi s pr obl em.
The UC pr obl em may al so be decomposed i nt o
smal l er subpr obl ems t hat ar e easi l y managed.
Each subpr obl em i s sol ved wi t h DP. The
subpr obl em coor di nat i on i s achi eved ei t her
sequent i al l y wi t h Successi ve Appr oxi mat i on
( SA) or i n par al l el wi t h a Hi er ar chi cal
Appr oach ( HA) . I n SA, t he sol ut i on of each
subpr obl emi s subdi vi ded i nt o a smal l er gri d
f or t he next subpr obl em and t he i t er at i ve
pr ocedur e cont i nues unt i l no i mpr ovement i n
t he sol ut i on i s det ect ed. I n HA, t he
subpr obl ems ar e sol ved i ndependent l y of each
ot her . The i nt er act i on bet ween t he
subpr obl ems i s mani pul at ed by a coor di nat or t o
conver ge t he sol ut i on of t he subpr obl ems t o
t he over al l pr obl emsol ut i on.
~n al t er nat i ve t o t he decomposi t i on i s t o onl y
appl y SA t o r est r i ct t he sol ut i on space of t he
DP appr oach. One of t he var i ant s of t hi s
appr oach uses Lagr angi an r educt i on of t he
sear ch r ange by usi ng t he dual of t he UC
pr obl em. Anot her var i ant uses a dual f unct i on
of t he r el axed or i gi nal UC pr obl em.
[ 29] Van den Bosch, P. P. J . and Honder d, G. , " A
Sol ut i on of t he Uni t Commi t ment Pr obl em
vi a Decomposi t i on and Dynami c
Pr ogr ammi ng, If I EEE Tr ansact i ons on
[ 30] Ni eva, R. , I nda, A. , and Gui l l en, I . ,
"Lagr angi an Reduct i on of Sear ch- Range f or
Lar ge Scal e Uni t Commi t ment , I EEE
Tr ansact i ons on PWRS- 2, No. 2, pp.
1049- 1055, August 1991.
PAS- 104, NO. 7, pp. 1684- 1690, J ul y 1985.
465- 473, May 1987.
131
Systems, IFAC Symposium on Large Scale
Systems, udine, Italy, June 1976.
Dillon, T.S., Edwin, K.W., Kochs, H.-D.,
and Taud, R. J. , "Integer Programming
Approach to the Problem of Optimal Unit
Commitment with Probabilistic Reserve
Determination," IEEE Transactions on
PAS-97, No. 6, pp. 2154-2166, Nov/Dec
1978.
Turgeon, A., "Optimal Scheduling of
Thermal Generating Units, 'I IEEE
Transactions on AC-23, No. 6, pp.
1000-1005, December 1978.
Pereira, M.V.F. and Pinto, L.M.V.G.,
ltApplication of Decomposition Techniques
to the Mid-Short-Term Scheduling of
Hydrothermal Systems, I' Proceedings of
the PICA, pp. 193-200, June 1983.
Shaw, J.J. and Bertsekas, D.P., lvOptimal
Scheduling of Large Hydrothermal Power
Systems," IEEE Transactions on PAS-104,
No. 2, pp. 286-294, February 1985.
Habibollahzadeh, H. and Bubenko, J.A.,
"Application of Decomposition Techniques
to Short-Term Operation Planning of
Hydrothermal Power System, IEEE
Transactions on PWRS-1, No. 1, pp. 41-47,
February 1986.
Recently, expert systems have been applied to
the UC problem. UC is initially solved using
available optimization techniques such as DP
or variable window truncated DP and then the
solution is refined by satisfying heuristic
rules derived from knowledge of the system
operation and conditions.
Ouyang, 2 . and Shahidehpour, S.M.,
"Heuristic Multi-Area Unit Commitment
with Economic Dispatch," IEE Proceedings,
Part C, Vol. 138, No. 3, pp. 242-252, May
1991.
Ouyang, 2. and Shahidehpour, S.M., i i ~
Intelligent Dynamic Programming for Unit
Commitment Application, IEEE
Transactions on PWRS-6, No. 3, pp.
1203-1209, August 1991.
Finally, fuzzy DP has been used to solve the
UC problem when the forecasted hourly loads
are not exactly known. For an optimal
solution, the DP model must express the
hourly loads, the cost, and the system
security in terms of fuzzy set notations.
[33] Su, C.C. and Hsu, Y.Y., 8tFuzzy Dynamic
Programming: An Application to Unit
Commitment," IEEE Transactions on PWRS-6,
All of the above techniques are use the same
vision to solve the problem. They see the
problem as a sequential decision process of
when to start the next unit and which unit to
start based on predicted (estimated) unit
operation. This theme is expanded to include
risk as shown below.
INTEGERWMIXED--PROGRAMMING
The solution of the UC problem based on the
Benders approach partitions the problem into a
nonlinear economic dispatch problem and a
pure-integer nonlinear UC problem. The
Mixed-Integer Programming (MIP) approach
solves the UC problem by reducing the solution
search space systematically through discarding
the infeasible subsets. Dual programming is
also suggested for the solution of the thermal
UC problem. The general solution concept is
based on solving a linear program and checking
for an integer solution. If the solution is
not integer, linear problems or subproblems
are continuously solved. The problems are not
similar because the number and type of integer
variables are changed while holding the
variables at a fixed integer value. Branching
is the strategy adopted to determine which
variables to hold constant.
No. 3, pp. 1231-1237, August 1991.
Garver, L. L. , "Power Generation
Scheduling by Integer Programming -
Development of Theory, AIEE
Transactions No. 2, pp. 730-735, February
1963.
Muckstadt, J.A. and Wilson, R.C., " An
Application of Mixed-Integer Programming
Duality to Scheduling Thermal Generating
Systems," IEEE Transactions on PAS-87,
Vol. 12, pp. 1968-1977, December 1968.
Dillon, T.S. and Egan, G.T., "The
Application of Combinatorial Methods to
the Problems of Maintenance Scheduling
and Unit Commitment in Large Power
of these techniques may be viewed as a
means of discarding the paths (branches) which
are not expected to yield a better solution.
BRANCH - - AND BOUND
The Branch and Bound (B&B) approach
essentially determines a lower bound to the
optimal solution and then finds a near-optimal
feasible commitment schedule. The
branch-and-bound tree is searched for the
"best" solution. The lower bound can be
determined from a dual optimization problem
that uses Lagrangian relaxation. Information
obtained from the dual problem is instrumental
in producing dynamic priority lists even
though priority lists may not be necessary.
These lists are useful in the determination of
feasible solutions and help in the computation
of an.upper bound on the solution. Only few
nodes of the branch-and-bound tree are
examined to obtain near-optimal solutions if
an upper bound is found.
Lauer, G.S. Sandell, N.R., Jr.,
Bertsekas, D.P., and Posbergh, T.A.,
"Solution of Large-scale Optimal unit
Commitment Problems,f' IEEE Transactions
on PAS-101, No. 1, pp. 79-86, January
1982.
Cohen, A.I. and Yoshimura, M., "A Branch
and Bound Algorithm for Unit Commitment,"
IEEE Transactions on PAS-102, No. 2, pp.
444-451, February 1983.
The concept of a tree is most appropriate if a
risk based approach'is to be used as discussed
below.
LINEAR PROGRAMMING
Several Linear Programming (LP) approaches
have been adopted to solve the large UC
132
pr obl em. Fi r st , t he pr obl em i s decomposed
i nt o smal l er subpr obl ems vi a t he Dant zi g- Wol f e
decomposi t i on pr i nci pl e. Each subpr obl emi s
sol ved usi ng Li near Pr ogr ammi ng. Second, t he
pr obl em i s sol ved wi t h t he r evi sed si mpl ex
t echni que. A dual f or mul at i on wi t h a r educed
basi s i s adopt ed al ong wi t h r el axat i on
t echni ques. A mer i t - or der l oadi ng easi l y
pr ovi des a st ar t i ng poi nt f or each schedul e.
Last , t he di scr et e deci si on l i near pr ogr ammi ng
appr oach i s appl i ed t o t he UC pr obl em wi t h
heur i st i cs such as pr i or i t y or der i ng. Thi s
t echni que i s an LP pr obl em wi t h di scr et e
bounded var i abl es al l owed t o be ei t her t he
l ower or upper bound of t he i nt er val .
[ 44] St ot t , B. , Mar i nho, J . L. , and Al sac, O. ,
"Revi ewof Li near Pr ogr ammi ng Appl i ed t o
Power Syst emReschedul i ng, " Pr oceedi ngs
of t he PI CA, pp. 142- 155, May 1979.
[ 45] Wai ght , J . G. , Bose, A . , and Shebl e, G. B. ,
"Gener at i on Di spat ch wi t h Reser ve Mar gi n
Const r ai nt s Usi ng Li near Pr ogr ammi ng, n
I EEE Tr ansact i ons on PAS- 100, No. 1, pp.
252- 258, J anuar y 1981.
[ 46] Pi ekut owski , M. and Rose, I . A. , "A Li near
Pr ogr ammi ng Met hod f or Uni t Commi t ment
I ncor por at i ng Gener at i on Conf i gur at i on,
Reser ve, and Fl ow Const r ai nt s, *I I EEE
Tr ansact i ons on PAS7104, NO. 12, pp.
3510- 3516, December 1985.
[ 47] Khodaver di an, E. , Br amel l er , A. , and
Dunnet t , R . M. , "Semi - Ri gor ous Ther mal
Uni t Commi t ment f or Lar ge Scal e
El ect r i cal Power Syst ems, I' I EEE
Pr oceedi ngs, Vol . 133, Par t C, No. 4, pp.
157- 164, may 1986.
The ext ensi on of such t echni ques t o bi ddi ng
pr ocedur es i s st r ai ght f or war d [ 3, 5, 7] . The
essence of a bi ddi ng pr ocedur e i s anal ogous t o
an open mar ket wher e each pl ant bi ds f or t he
next cont r act t o pr ovi de power and ener gy.
DYNAMI C AND LI NEAR PROGRAMMI NG
The UC pr obl emi s sol ved usi ng r egul ar DP or
DP wi t h successi ve appr oxi mat i on of t he
sol ut i on space. LP sol ves t he economi c
di spat ch wi t hi n UC f or t he cal cul at i on of t he
pr oduct i on cost or t he opt i mal al l ocat i on of
f uel . Dant zi g- Wol f e decomposi t i on, when
used, par t i t i ons t he l i near pr ogr am i nt o
smal l er , mor e manageabl e LP subpr obl ems. LP
wi t h upper boundi ng i s al so an al t er nat i ve
sol ut i on t echni que t o t he economi c di spat ch
pr obl em.
Wai ght , J . G. , Al buyeh, F. , and Bose, A . ,
"Schedul i ng of Gener at i on and Reser ve
Mar gi n usi ng Dynami c and Li near
Pr ogr ammi ng, I' I EEE Tr ansact i ons on
PAS- 100, No. 5 , pp. 2226- 2230, May 1981.
Van Meet er en, H. P . , "Schedul i ng of
Gener at i on and Al l ocat i on of Fuel Usi ng
Dynami c and Li near Pr ogr ammi ng, If I EEE
Tr ansact i ons on PAS- 103, No. 7, pp.
Shebl e, G. B. and Gr i gsby, L. L. , "Deci si on
Anal ysi s Sol ut i on of t he Uni t Commi t ment
Pr obl em, El ect r i c Power . Syst ems
Resear ch, Vol . 10, No. 11, pp. 85- 93,
November 1986.
1562- 1568, J ul y 1984.
The essence of t hese t echni ques i s t o pr ovi de
t he DP wi t h addi t i onal i nf or mat i on t o gui de
t he sel ect i on of t he t r ee pat hs. Not e t hat
r ef er ence 50 vi ewed t he deci si on pr ocess as
how t o al l ocat e t he f i nanci al r esour ces f or
uni t oper at i on.
SEPARABLEPROGRAMMING
Separ abl e Pr ogr ammi ng ( SP) assumes t hat t he
obj ect i ve f unct i on i s concave and t he
const r ai nt s ar e convex wi t h onl y one non- zer o
var i abl e. Thi s speci al st r uct ur e can be
expl oi t ed by LP. The A- separ abl e pr ogr ammi ng
t echni que i s used wi t h gener al i zed upper
boundi ng LP t o sol ve t he UC pr obl em.
[ 51] Rahman, S. , "Power Syst em Oper at i on
Schedul i ng usi ng Separ abl e Pr ogr ammi ng, "
El ect r i c Power Syst ems Resear ch, Vol . 2,
No. 4 , pp. 292- 303, December 1979.
Thi s can al so be vi ewed as a t ype of
LaGr angi an Rel axat i on appr oach.
NETWORK ELQH PROGRAMMI NG
Net wor k Fl ow (NF) Pr ogr ammi ng i s t he basi s f or
schedul i ng most hydr o syst ems. Thus i t woul d
be anot her anal ogy t o appl y t o t he uni t
commi t ment pr obl em. The r esul t i s a nonl i near
obj ect i ve f unct i on and a l i near set of
const r ai nt s. Thi s pr obl emcan be sol ved wi t h
a r educed gr adi ent al gor i t hm. I t can al so be
sol ved wi t h a Fr ank- Wol f e t echni que. I n t hi s
case, net wor k f l owr epl aces LP t o sol ve a par t
of t he pr obl emi f t he non- net wor k const r ai nt s
ar e not bi ndi ng.
[ 52] Br annl und, H. , Sj el vgr en, D. , and
Bubenko, J . A. , "Shor t - Ter m Gener at i on
Schedul i ng wi t h Secur i t y Const r ai nt s, "
I EEE Tr ansact i ons on PWRS- 3, No. 1, pp.
310- 316, Febr uar y 1988.
[ 53] Habi bol l ahzadeh, H. , Fr ances, D. , and
Sui , U. , "A New Gener at i on Schedul i ng
Pr ogr am at Ont ar i o Hydr o, I EEE
Tr ansact i ons on PWRS- 5, No. 1, pp. 65- 73,
Febr uar y 1990.
The anal ogy of Net wor k Fl ows al so appl i es t o
t r ee based t echni ques as shown i n r ef er ence
11.
LAGRANGI AN-
The Lagr angi an Rel axat i on ( LR) opt i mi zat i on
t echni que decomposes t he UC pr obl em i nt o a
mast er pr obl emand mor e manageabl e subpr obl ems
t hat ar e sol ved i t er at i vel y unt i l a
The near - opt i mal sol ut i on i s obt ai ned.
subpr obl ems ar e sol ved i ndependent l y. Each
subpr obl em det er mi nes t he commi t ment of a
si ngl e uni t . The pr obl ems ar e l i nked by
LaGr ange mul t i pl i er s t hat ar e added t o t he
mast er pr obl emt o yi el d a dual pr obl em. The
dual pr obl em has l ower di mensi ons t han t he
pr i mal pr obl emand i s easi er t o sol ve. For
t he UC pr obl em, t he pr i mal f unct i on i s al ways
gr eat er t han or equal t o t he f unct i on whi ch i s
def i ned as weak dual ' i ty. The di f f er ence
bet ween t he t wo f unct i ons yi el ds t he dual i t y
gap f or whi ch t he pr i mal f unct i on i s an upper
bound. The dual i t y gap pr ovi des a measur e of
t he near - opt i mal i t y of t he sol ut i on.
The LaGr ange mul t i pl i er s ar e comput ed at t he
mast er pr obl em l evel . Once comput ed, t he
133
Pumped- St or age Hydr o, " I EEE Tr ansact i ons
1989.
On PWRS- 4, NO. 3, pp. 1065-1073, August
[65] Vi r mani , S., I mhof , K. , and Mukhenj ee,
S., ' I mpl ement at i on of a Lagr angi an
Rel axat i on Based Uni t Commi t ment
Pr obl em, I EEE Tr ansact i ons on PWRS- 4,
No. 4, pp. 1373-1379, November 1989.
[66] Tong, S. K. and Shahi dehpour , S. M. , "An
I nnovat i ve Appr oach t o Gener at i on
Schedul i ng i n Lar ge- scal e Hydr o Ther mal
Power Syst ems wi t h Fuel Const r ai ned
Uni t s, " I EEE Tr ansact i ons on PWRS- 5, No.
[67] Ruzi c, S. and Raj akovi c, N. , ''A New
Appr oach f or Sol vi ng Ext ended Uni t
commi t ment Pr obl em, " I EEE Tr ansact i ons on
PWRS- 6, No . 1, pp. 269-275, Febr uar y
1991.
2, pp. 665-673, May 1990.
Lagr ange mul t i pl i er s ar e passed t o t he
subpr obl ems. The sol ut i on of t he subpr obl ems
by f or war d DP i s f ed back t o t he mast er
pr obl em and updat ed mul t i pl i er s ar e obt ai ned
and used by t he subpr obl ems agai n. Thi s
pr ocess i s r epeat ed unt i l t he sol ut i on
conver ges. For t he shor t - t er mUC pr obl em, t he
mul t i pl i er s ar e updat ed t hr ough a subgr adi ent
met hod wi t h a scal i ng f act or and t uni ng
const ant s t hat ar e det er mi ned heur i st i cal l y.
For t he l ong- t er mUC pr obl em, t he mul t i pl i er s
ar e updat ed wi t h t he var i abl e met r i c met hod t o
pr event t he sol ut i on near t he dual maxi mum
f romosci l l at i ng.
[54] Fi sher , M. L. , "Opt i mal Sol ut i on of
Schedul i ng Pr obl ems usi ng Lagr ange
Mul t i pl i er s : Par t I , It Oper at i ons
Resear ch, Vol . 21, pp. 1114-1127, 1973.
[55] Muckst adt , J . A. and Koeni g, S. A. , I I A n
Appl i cat i on of Lagr angi an Rel axat i on t o
Schedul i ng i n Power Gener at i ng Syst ems,
Oper at i ons Resear ch, Vol . 25, pp.
387-403, May/ J une 1977.
[56] Ber t sekas, D.P., Lauer , G. S. , Sandel l ,
N. R. , J r . , and Posber gh, T. A. , "Opt i mal
Shor t - Ter m Schedul i ng of Lar ge Scal e
Power Syst ems, I' I EEE Tr ansact i ons on
AC-28, No. 1, pp. 1-11, J anuar y 1983.
[57] Mer l i n, A. and Sandr i n, P. , "A New Met hod
f or Uni t Commi t ment at El ect r i ci t 6 de
Fr ance, II I EEE Tr ansact i ons on PAS- 102,
NO. 5, pp. 1218-1225, May 1983.
[58] Fi sher , M. L. , " A n Appl i cat i on Or i ent ed
Gui de t o Lagr angi an Rel axat i on, 'I
I nt er f aces, vol . 15, No. 2, pp. 10-21,
Mar ch/ Apr i l 1985.
[59] Cohen, A. I . and Wan, S. H. , "A Met hod f or
Sol vi ng t he Fuel Const r ai ned Uni t
Commi t ment Pr obl em, " I EEE Tr ansact i ons on
[60] Aoki , K. , Sat oh, T. , I t oh, M. , I chi mor i ,
T. , and Masegi , K. , "Uni t Commi t ment i n
a Lar ge- scal e Power Syst emI ncl udi ng Fuel
Const r ai ned Ther mal and Pumped- St or age
Hydr o, " I EEE Tr ansact i ons on PWRS- 2, No .
4, pp. 1077-1084, November 1987.
[61] Zhuang, F. and Gal i ana, F. D. , "Towar ds a
mor e Ri gor ous and Pr act i cal Uni t
Commi t ment by Lagr angi an Rel axat i on, "
I EEE Tr ansact i ons on PWRS-3, No. 2 , pp.
763-773, May 1988.
[62] Bar d, J . F. , "Shor t - Ter m Schedul i ng of
Ther mal El ect r i c Gener at or s Usi ng
Lagr angi an Rel axat i on, " Oper at i ons
Resear ch, Vol . 36, No. 5 , pp. 756-766,
Sept ember / Oct ober 1988.
[63] Tong, S. K. and Shahi dehpour , S. M. ,
"Combi nat i on of Lagr angi an- Rel axat i on and
Li near Pr ogr ammi ng Appr oaches f or Fuel
Const r ai ned Uni t Commi t ment Pr obl ems, "
I EE Pr oceedi ngs, Vol . 136, Par t C, No. 3,
[64] Aoki , K. , I t oh, M. , Sat oh, T. , Nar a, K. ,
and Kanezashi , M. , "Opt i mal Long- Ter m
uni t Commi t ment i n Lar ge Scal e Syst ems
I ncl udi ng Fuel Const r ai ned Ther mal and
PWRS- 2, No. 3, pp. 608-614, August 1987.
pp. 162-174, May 1989.
EXPERT SYSTEMS/AR= NEURAL NETWORKS
Exper t syst ems combi ne t he i dent i f i cat i on of
exi st i ng pr obl ems wi t h t he UC al gor i t hms and
t he knowl edge of exper i enced power syst em
oper at or s and UC pr ogr ammi ng exper t s t o cr eat e
an exper t syst em r ul e base ( pr ocedur al dat a
base) . The exper t syst em i mpr oves t he
sol ut i on by adj ust i ng t he pr ogr am' s par amet er s
t hr ough i nt er act i on wi t h t he syst em' s
oper at or . Exper t Syst ems ar e mor e r ecent l y
ref erred t o as Knowl edge Base Syst ems ( KBS) .
Est i mat es of Ar t i f i ci al Neur al Net wor ks ( ANN)
par amet er s ar e based on a dat abase hol di ng
t ypi cal l oad cur ves and cor r espondi ng UC
schedul es. The pat t er n of t he cur r ent l oad
cur ve i s compar ed t o t he i nf or mat i on i n t he
dat abase t o sel ect t he most economi cal uc
schedul e. I n t he event t hat t he A" sol ut i on
i s not f easi bl e f or t he ent i r e UC per i od, i t
wi l l be used as an i ni t i al st ar t i ng poi nt f or
a near - opt i mal sol ut i on. A " s r espond t o
changes i n oper at i ng condi t i ons when pr esent ed
wi t h suf f i ci ent f act s, even t hough t hey ar e
t r ai ned of f - l i ne.
[68] Mokht ar i , S. , Si ngh, J . , and Wol l enber g,
B. , " A Uni t Commi t ment Exper t Syst em, "
Pr oceedi ngs of t he PI CA, pp. 400-405, May
1987,
[69] Shebl b, G. B. , "Sol ut i on of t he Uni t
Commi t ment Pr obl emby t he Met hod of Uni t
Per i ods ,' I I EEE Tr ansact i ons on PWRS-5,
No. 1, pp. 257-260, Febr uar y 1990.
[70] Wang, C. , Ouyang, Z., and Shahi dehpour ,
S. M. , and Deeb, N . , "uni t Commi t ment by
Neur al Net wor ks, " Pr oceedi ngs of Amer i can
Power Conf er ence, vol . 52, pp. 245-250,
Apr i l 1990.
[71] Ouyang, 2. and Shahi dehpour , S. M. , "Shor t
Ter m Uni t commi t ment Exper t Syst em, "
El ect r i c Power Syst ems Resear ch, Vol . 18,
No. 1, pp. 1-13, December 1990.
721 Tong, S.K., Shahi dehpour , S. M. , and
Ouyang, "A Heur i st i c Shor t - Ter m Uni t
Commi t ment , " I EEE Tr ansact i ons on
PWRS- 6, NO. 3, pp. 1210-1216, August
1991.
731 Ouyang, Z. and Shahi dehpour , S. M. , " A
Mul t i - St age I nt el l i gent Syst em f or uni t
Commitment," IEEE Transactions on PWRS,
Paper SM 322-8, San Diego, 1991.
Sasaki, H., Watanabe, M., kubokawa, J.,
Yorino, N., and Yokoyarna, R., "A Solution
Method of Unit Commitment by Artificial
Neural Networks, '' IEEE Transactions on
PWRS, Paper 91 SM 437-4, San Diego, 1991.
Ouyang, Z. and Shahidehpour, S. M. , "A
Hybrid Artificial Neural Network-Dynamic
Programming Approach to Unit Commitment,"
IEEE Transactions on PWRS, Paper 91 SM
438-2, San Diego, 1991.
It is notable that considerable research is
underway to relate the trees of A"s to those
of KBSs. It should be noted that strict
conversion, from one type of KBS to ANN, is
not possible. However, the addition of simple
decoupling neurons (nodes ) makes the
transition trivial for several practical
cases.
RI SKANALYSI S
Scheduling and rescheduling of generating
units are based on certain observable events
such as load changes and unit forced outages.
A risk analysis is warranted to determine the
necessary additional generating capacity to
meet the system load and reserve requirements.
One such probabilistic analysis proposes that
the UC must satisfy two risk levels: one at
the isolated system level and another at the
interconnected level. Another approach adopts
a stochastic model that reflects the sequence
of events associated with scenario-based
sequential rescheduling decisions. The random
sequence model is expressed in terms of
available capacity to reduce the dimensions of
the problem.
[76] Chowdhury, N. and Billinton, R., "Unit
Commitment in Interconnected Generating
Systems Using a Probabilistic Technique,"
IEEE Transactions on PWRS-5, No. 4, pp.
1231-1237, November 1990.
[77] Lee, F.N. and Chen, Q., "Unit Commitment
Risk with Sequential Rescheduling," IEEE
Transactions on PWRS-6, NO. 3, pp.
Risk Analysis is most recently extended to
include operational and planning events beyond
unit Commitment as discussed below.
a MULATm ANNEAL1 NG
The UC problem has been compared to the
annealing of a metal. When the metal is
cooled slowly (annealed), its energy tends to
assume a globally minimal value. The states
of a metal correspond to the various feasible
solutions of the problem to minimize and the
energy of a state is analogous to the cost of
a feasible solution. Simulated Annealing
(sm) generates near-optimal and fast
solutions. Feasible solutions are generated
randomly and are accepted as the next
generation to continue the solution process if
the cost of the current solution is less than
the previous one. Otherwise, the current
solution is accepted with a certain
probability.
1017-1023, August 1991.
[78] Zhuang, F. and Galiana, F.D., "Unit
Commitment by Simulated Annealing," IEEE
Transactions on PWRS-5, NO. 1, pp.
311-318, February 1990.
AUGMENTE D MGRANG IAN
This is an optimization technique that handles
static and dynamic constraints. The two types
of constraints are decomposed into subproblems
of reasonable size, homogeneous nature, and
well-known structure. The objective function
to optimize is unconstrained and continuously
differentiable. Ill-conditioning is avoided.
Artificial constraints and variables are added
to the original problem to decompose it.
Next, the artificial constraints are handled
via a dual approach and an augmented
Lagrangian (AL) relaxation technique which
adds a quadratic penalty function to the
constraints. Finally, The Auxiliary Problem
Principle is applied to decompose the problem
by linearizing the nonseparable terms of the
cost function and by adding separable
quadratic terms (if properly chosen) to the
cost function.
[ 791 Batut, J. and Renaud, A . , "Daily
Generation Scheduling Optimization with
Transmission Constraints: A New Class of
Algorithms," IEEE Transactions on PWRS,
Paper 91 SM 429-1, San Diego, 1991.
DECISIONANALYSIS
Decision Analysis is the art of analyzing the
choice of decision options by subjectively
assessing the outcomes of each decision and
the probability of each outcome. The
reference which the authors have used IS:
[80] Raiffa, H. A., DecisiQn An alvsis - :
y n c e r t a w , Addison-Wesley Publishing
Company, Reading, Massachusetts, 1968.
Such an approach builds a decision tree to
show the outcomes possible from each decision.
Such a tree resembles the paths generated by a
full DP approach. If the outcomes are assumed
to be certain,then all of the above may be
viewed as tree based techniques. Many of the
above optimization techniques may be viewed as
different approaches to pruning the tree.
Some approaches prune by excluding paths above
a pre-determined cost value (truncated DP,
priority list modification, KBS). Other
methods prune by excluding branches (paths) by
estimating the minimum cost and/or feasibility
(MIP, B&B, LP, SP, LR, AL). Finally, the
latest approach is to select the best path by
evaluating the energy (quality of solution)
and randomly searching for alternative
decisions to reduce the energy ( S A n ) . The
authors have started efforts on solving the uc
problem with Genetic Algorithms and will
present such work when definitive results are
available.
Since the tree approach is being used for bulk
power assessment, the key to future efforts
will be to explicityly link the above
techniques with decision trees. It has been
realized for some time, that the reason for
solving the unit commitment problem is not
just to determine a unit schedule. The
mtroductorv Lect ures Choices under
135
Gerald B. Sheble' ( U 71, SM 85) i s an
Associ at e Pr of essor of El ect r i cal Engi neer i ng,
I owa St at e Uni ver si t y. Dr . Shebl 6 r ecei ved
hi s B. S . and M. S. degr ees i n El ect r i cal
Engi neer i ng f r om Pur due Uni ver si t y and hi s
Ph. D. i n El ect r i cal Engi neer i ng f r omVi r gi ni a
Tech. Hi s i ndust r i al exper i ence ext ends over
f i f t een year s. Hi s academi c exper i ence
i ncl udes r esear ch i n t he appl i cat i on of power
syst ems t echni ques f or spacecr af t . Hi s
pr esent r esear ch cent er s i n t he opt i mal
oper at i on and schedul i ng of power syst ems.
George Fahd (S 85) r ecei ved hi s B. S. E. E. i n
December of 1985 and hi s M. S. E. E. i n August of
1987 f r om t he Uni ver si t y of Al abama at
Bi r mi ngham. He r ecei ved t he Ph. D. maj or i ng i n
Power Syst ems f r omAubur n Uni ver si t y i n J une,
1991. He hel d a post doct or at e posi t i on at
I owa St at e Uni ver si t y bef or e j oi ni ng Deci si on
Focus I ncor por at ed I n December of 1991. Hi s
i nt er est s i ncl ude uni t commi t ment model i ng,
economi c di spat ch, opt i mal power f l ow,
opt i mi zat i on t echni ques, power syst em
oper at i on and cont r ol , and economy
t r ansact i ons.
pr i mar y r eason f or sol vi ng t he uni t commi t ment
pr obl em i s t o pr ovi de a cost basi s f or
t r ansact i on pr i ci ng. As such, r esear ch f or
t he f ut ur e shoul d concent r at e on r el at i ng t he
uni t schedul e t o t he avai l abl e t r ansact i ons
wi t h t he i nt ent of sel ect i ng t he l east cost ,
yet r el i abl e, opt i on.
SUMMARY
Thi s paper gi ves a l i st of t he r ef er ences
avai l abl e f or t he sol ut i on of t he t her mal UC
pr obl em. A var i et y of t echni ques have been
appl i ed t o t hi s compl ex, nonl i near ,
mi xed- i nt eger pr ogr ammi ng pr obl em. A cl ear
consensus i s pr esent l y t endi ng t owar d t he
Lagr angi an Rel axat i on appr oach over ot her
met hodol ogi es. The Augment ed Lagr angi an i s a
r el at i vel y newcomer t hat i s not t hor oughl y
t est ed yet . Anot her ar ea of r esear ch i nvol ves
t he appl i cat i on of genet i c al gor i t hms t o t he
sol ut i on of t he UC pr obl em. Thi s i s a r andom
sear ch met hod whi ch i s based on nat ur e' s
sur vi val of t he f i t t est t heor y. Cl ear l y, t he
met hods t o be used f or t hi s pr obl em wi l l
cont i nue t o evol ve.