A solution to the unit commitment problem via molecular mechanics

This work proposes a 4-state generating unit definition for the unit commitment (UC) formulation plus the standard definitions. This consideration produces a dimensionality problem that is tackled through the imitation of the geometrical optimisation problem of molecular structures to reach its minimum energy state. Based on classical mechanics laws, the geometric optimisation (GO) process is imitated, where molecular structures can be optimised from an energy viewpoint. To achieve this, the electric power system (EPS) is modelled as a molecular system (MS) composed of several virtual molecules where each one of them represents a generating unit. Thus, getting the minimum potential energy (via the van der Waals energy function) of the molecular system is equivalent to obtaining the minimum production cost of electric energy. To solve the problem, the simulated annealing (SA) technique is used as the optimisation technique. The EPS-MS model and method proposed here are validated in this work when calculating a 24-hour UC and its results are compared to an optimal solution analytically obtained and a solution using the conventional on/off states.

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