A new priority list unit commitment method for large-scale power systems

Continuous load demand variation and incapability of electrical power storage, forcing power system operators to schedule the utility generating units on/off plans and optimizing the output of generation units. This scheduling is defined as Unit Commitment (UC). Unit commitment scheduling aims to minimizing total cost and satisfying forecasted power demand and other constraints. UC problem can be considered one of the most complex optimization problem with binary and continuous variables as well as unlimited constraints which represent a computationally challenging to power system operators. In this paper, a new, fast, straightforward, efficient and reliable priority list UC technique has been proposed. The introduced priority list technique has been applied and tested on the commonly used ten-unit test system and its multiples 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 units. To clarify the validation of the proposed technique, the obtained results have been compared with other solving techniques presented in previous relevant published literature. The obtained results show the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed technique in term of execution time and total cost. Also, the obtained results affirm the efficiently and reliability of the proposed technique for large-scale UC problem solution.