This paper presents a novel method for unit commitment by synergistically combining Lagrangian relaxation for constraint handling with Hopfield-type recurrent neural networks for fast convergence to the minimum. The key idea is to set up a Hopfieldtype network using the negative dual as its energy function. This network is connected to “neuron-based dynamic programming modules” that make full u...

As an energy market transforms from a regulated market to a deregulated one, the demands for a power plant are highly uncertain. In this paper, we study a two-stage robust optimization formulation and provide a tractable solution approach for the problem. The computational experiments show the effectiveness of our approach.

We present sufficient conditions under which thermal generators can be aggregated in mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) formulations of the unit commitment (UC) problem, while maintaining feasibility and optimality for the original disaggregated problem. Aggregating thermal generators with identical characteristics (e.g., minimum/maximum power output, minimum up/down-time, and cost curves)...

The Unit Commitment problem in energy management aims at finding the optimal productions schedule of a set of generation units while meeting various system-wide constraints. It has always been a large-scale, non-convex difficult problem, especially in view of the fact that operational requirements imply that it has to be solved in an unreasonably small time for its size. Recently, the ever incr...

Valve-point loading affects the input-output characteristics of generating units, bringing the fuel costs nonlinear and nonsmooth. This has been considered in the solution of load dispatch problems, but not in the planning phase of unit commitment. This paper presents a mathematical optimization model for the thermal unit commitment problem considering valve-point loading. The formulation is ba...

As the dynamics of technology change rapidly in the power industry, new methodologies and the enhanced version of existing approaches addressing these new technologies are flowing into the market. So there is an urgent need to keep a track of new techniques and the latest version of current algorithms used in the field of today’s unit commitment problems. Some methods are focusing on speed and ...