A profit-based unit commitment GA for the competitive environment

As the electrical industry restructures, many of the traditional algorithms for controlling generating units need modification or replacement, previously utilized to schedule generation units in a manner that minimizes costs while meeting all demand, the unit commitment (UC) algorithm must be updated. A UC algorithm that maximizes profit will play an essential role in developing successful bidding strategies for the competitive generator. Simply bidding to win contracts is insufficient; bidding strategies must result in contracts that, on average, cover the total generation costs. No longer guaranteed to be the only electricity supplier, a generation company's share of the demand will be more difficult to predict than in the past. Removing the obligation to serve softens the demand constraint. In this paper the authors provide a price/profit-based UC formulation which considers the softer demand constraint and allocates fixed and transitional costs to the scheduled hours. The authors describe a genetic algorithm solution to this new UC problem and present results for an illustrative example.