Unit commitment
The problem of unit commitment involves finding the least-cost dispatch of available generation resources to meet the electrical load.
Generating resources can include a wide range of types:
- Nuclear
- Thermal (using coal, gas, other fossil
fuels, or biomass) - Renewables (including hydro, wind, wave-power, and solar)
The key decision variables that are decided by the computer program are:
- Generation level (in megawatts)
- Number of generating units on
The latter decisions are binary (0,1), which means the mathematical problem is not continuous.
In addition, generating plant are subject to a number of complex technical constraints, including:
- Minimum stable operating level
- Maximum rate of ramping up or down
- Minimum time period the unit is up and/or down
These constraints are amenable to mathematical programming as linear or mixed-integer constraints.