Short term unit-commitment using genetic algorithms

The authors present a genetic approach for determining the priority order in the commitment of thermal units in power generation. The objective of the problem is to properly schedule the on/off states of all thermal units in a system to meet the load demand and the reverse requirement at each time interval, such that the overall system generation cost is a minimum, while satisfying various operational constraints. The authors examine the feasiblity of using genetic algorithms and report some simulation results in near-optimal commitment of thermal units in a power system.