Genetic algorithm solution to unit commitment problem

Abstract

In this paper, Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used to solve the Unit Commitment (UC) Problem. Unit commitment problem was formulated with consideration of up & down time, startup cost (Hot & Cold start), and production cost. Unit commitment schedule as well as economic dispatch is obtained to obtain total cost of generation. Problem specific operators are used in the algorithm to improve the quality of the solution obtained and increase the convergence speed of problem. Performance of the GA is tested on 2 IEEE test systems, one of 5 units, 14 bus and another of 7 units, 56 bus respectively over the scheduling period of 24 hours. Results give an insight in the superiority of GA to other methods for solving UC problem.