A New Method for Unit Commitment at Electricite de France

Abstract

Unit commitment is a complex problem which, until now and for real size systems, has been solved using heuristic methods only. This paper proposes a new Lagragian relaxation method, which produces ??-optimal solutions. The flexibility of the algorithm is such that numerous developments can be envisaged, such as simultaneous management of pumping units, probabilistic determination of the spinning reserve, etc.