An Integrated Optimization Algorithm to Solve Profit Based Unit Commitment Problem

Abstract

In the deregulated power systems, profit based unit commitment problem (PBUCP) is a combinatorial optimizing task which has binary and real decision variables. The binary variables depict unit’s ON/OFF status and real variables depict the power allocated to the ON status units. In the present research, an integrated optimization algorithm (IOA) is introduced to solve the PBUCP with reserve consideration. The IOA is a blending of binary differential evolution (BDE) algorithm and local binary search optimizer (LBSO) and is implemented to improve the effectiveness of the BDE algorithm. In the previous research studies, the GENCOs mostly participated in the energy market only. In this study, GENCOs have participated in the energy and reserve markets. A power system comprising of 10-units for a scheduling period of 24 hours has been considered to investigate the capability of the proposed BDE algorithm and IOA. A comparison of results of proposed algorithms and other previous research methods applied to solve the PBUCP has been made and it is found that the IOA is provided superior results to previous research methods as well as the proposed BDE algorithm.