ABSTRACT
Unit commitment (UC) problem is to obtain an optimal schedule for switching on/off generating units during a certain time period. The optimization is based on generation costs, start-up costs, load profiles, and power system operation constraints. UC is a multiple time period optimization problem. Economic dispatch is a subproblem of the UC problem to optimize generation schedules within one hour. An example is first used to illustrate the idea of UC, and how to obtain optimal unit schedules using enumeration method and economic dispatch. Then, the mathematical model of UC and its solution algorithms are presented in this chapter.
