Unit Commitment by an Improved Priority List Method

Unit commitment problem helps in deciding which generation unit should be running in each period so as to satisfy a predictably varying demand for electricity. Unit Commitment enables uninterruptible power to be delivered to consumers using the principle of minimum operating cost. In this work, the unit commitment problem is solved using improved priority list method approach. The generators are switched ON and OFF on a priority basis to minimize the total operating cost of the generating units. The numerical results show that the improved priority list can commit the most economic unit first much better than other existing PL methods.