The novel stochastic algorithm for thermal unit commitment

In this paper, a novel stochastic algorithm is presented to deal with the unit commitment problems. In this algorithm, a stochastic coding scheme including a binary and an integer matrices represented all the potential combinations of units statuses during the dispatch intervals. Signal-to-Noise Ratio(SNR) technique is used to avoid the entrapment in a local minimum to obtain a better solution. The effectiveness and efficiency of the algorithm are demonstrated by using several cases and the results are compared with many previous publications. Results show that the proposed method is feasible, robust, and more effective than many other previously developed computation algorithms.