The use of simulated annealing and fuzzy system for unit commitment

This paper presents a new fuzzy unit commitment (UC) problem model. The UC problem involves determining the start-up and shutdown schedules for generating units to meet the forecasted demand at minimum cost. The model treats the uncertainties in the load demand and the spinning reserve constraints in a fuzzy logic (FL) frame. The simulated annealing (SA) method is used to solve the combinatorial part of the unit commitment problem, while the nonlinear part of the problem is solved via a quadratic programining routine. A polynomial time cooling schedule is used in the implementation of the SA algorithm, Now rules concerning the cooling schedule are presented. Ramp rate constraints have also been added in order to obtain more realistic results. Numerical results show the superiority of the solutions obtained compared to methods with traditional UC problem models.