A New Approach for Solving the Unit Commitment Problem by Enhanced Particle Swarm Optimization

This paper proposes an Enhanced Particle Swarm Optimization (EPSO) approach to the Unit Commitment Problem (UCP). The Binary Particle Swarm Optimization (BPSO) algorithm for on/off decision and the Classical Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm for the economic load dispatch problem are enhanced to find the optimal solution and reduce the overall computation time. The proposed technique is tested on 10 to 100 unit systems with a 24-h scheduling horizon. The results of the EPSO on the benchmark datasets are comparable with the results of other heuristic approaches found in the literature. This preliminary experimental study shows that EPSO is suitable for the UCP and the promising results promote further study.