Fast bounding technique for branch-and-cut algorithm based monthly SCUC

Monthly unit commitment with energy constraints is crucial for reducing the energy consumption of generation scheduling. Restricted by the calculation complexity, most approaches for long-term SCUC have to sacrifice the optimality of the solution for the sake of the acceptable calculation time. In response to this issue, a fast bounding technique is proposed to improve the traditional branch and cut algorithm. This technique is able to quickly decrease the upper bound and increase the lower bound for the optimal solution of long-term SCUC in branch-and-cut search, and improve the calculation speed of monthly SCUC in the premise of guaranteeing the optimality of solution. A practical provincial power system in China is employed in cases study, and corresponding results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.