POWER SYSTEM ANALYSIS – 2

(18EE71)

MODULE – 04
UNIT COMMITMENT
INTRODUCTION:
 An important issue in steady state operation of
power system is the scheduling or committing of
generation units.
 It is not advisable to run all the units in a plant to
meet the load demand, as the load demand varies
time to time.
 Hence, it is essential to take decisions on,
 What are units to be turned ON to meet the load,
 How long these units to be turned ON,
INTRODUCTION:
 The sequence in which the operating units should
be shut down and for how long.
 The computational procedure for making such
decisions is called as Unit Commitment.
 Commit a unit means turn the generator ON, bring it
to its rated speed, synchronize with the grid and
connect it to the grid so that it can deliver power to
the system whenever demanded.
INTRODUCTION:
 Hence, the Unit Commitment Problem (UCP) can be
defined as follows.
“It is not economical to run all the units available at
all the times. Hence, the problem of Unit
Commitment is to determine the units of the plant
which should operate for a particular load demand
and particular period”
INTRODUCTION:
 It is important to realize the difference between the Unit
Commitment and the Economic Dispatch problem.
 In the Economic Load Dispatch problem, the
generation among the units, which are assumed
connected to the system to meet a particular load
demand, is determined so that the overall cost is
minimized.
 Hence, it is important to solve the Unit Commitment
problem, first, to determine the units which have to
operate to minimize the fuel costs.
INTRODUCTION:
 Then next, with these units the generation scheduling
of them can be determined by the Economic Load
Dispatch.
 For ‘N’ no. of generation units, there are a number of
subsets which can meet the expected load demand.
(One unit alone, Two units together, Three units
together, etc.)
 The subset which will give the minimum operating cost
is to be determined and is the Unit Commitment
schedule.
INTRODUCTION:
 The Unit Commitment problem minimizes the total
costs over the entire commitment period by satisfying a
number of operating and economic constraints.
 The cost not only involves production or fuel cost, but
also the transition cost associated.
 This transition cost is associated with changing from
one combination of units to the other.
 The transition cost is made up of start-up costs
involved with the units which have to be committed and
shut-down costs involved with the units which have to
be decommitted.
INTRODUCTION:
 The fuel cost depends on many other variables, such
as, characteristics of generating units, magnitude of
load, amount of interchange, etc.
 Following are the assumptions made in the solution of
Unit Commitment Problem.
 The load is not affected by adding or removing the
units.
 The net power interchange will not vary when the
units are added or removed.
 The fuel costs of units are composed of starting
costs, no lod spinning costs and loading costs.
INTRODUCTION:
 All the units running at any moment in time are
always in Economic Load Dispatch.
 While solving the Unit Commitment Problem, a number
of issues have to be considered, some of which are,
 Hourly power demand for next 24 hrs.
 Number of hours the units has already been running.
 Availability of the unit for a part or whole of the
scheduling time.
 Change in the generation limits of the units during the
commitment period.
 Minimum up time and minimum down time of the units.
INTRODUCTION:
 Response rates of units as a function of their output.
 The required reserve capacity of the units.
 Constraints on thermal and hydro units.
 Thus the solution of a Unit Commitment Problem (UCP)
is a challenging task.
 A number of approaches or methods are available for
solving the UCP based on
 Heuristic methods
 Dynamic Programming method
 Integer Programming method
 Linear programming method.
INTRODUCTION:
 The heuristic methods have been quite popular in UCP.
 They have the following advantages.
 They are flexible and allow for the consideration of
practical operating constraints.
 Feasible solutions are generally obtained.
 Computational requirements are moderate.
 However, the heuristic methods do not guarantee an
optimal solution.
 In large capacity units, this could make heavy annual
loss in cost due to non-optimal solutions.
INTRODUCTION:
 Hence, the recent techniques, such as, Neural
networks, Fuzzy logics, expert systems, genetic
algorithms, etc. are used for obtaining a near optimal
solution.
CONSTRAINTS IN UNIT COMMITMENT:
 The constraints on the unit commitment problem are
unique to the power system under consideration.
 The constraints depends on composition of generator
units like, thermal, hydel, renewable, etc., the load curve,
the operational requirement of the utility, etc.
 However, there are some constraints to be considered
irrespective of the unique configuration as follows.
1) Spinning Reserve 6) Generation Capacity limits
2) Thermal Unit constraints 7) Fuel Constraints
3) Start-up costs of thermal units 8) Security Constraints
4) Network Constraints 9) Hydel Plant constraints
5) Emission Constraints
CONSTRAINTS IN UNIT COMMITMENT:
1) SPINNING RESERVE:
 In any power system, some amount of active power
generation capability has to be kept in reserve to
reestablish the balance between the load and
generation at all times, even under the situation of a
unit failing.
 Different types of reserves are required to respond to
different types of events over different time frames.
 The spinning reserve is defined in various ways as
follows.
CONSTRAINTS IN UNIT COMMITMENT:
1) SPINNING RESERVE:
A. Generators online, synchronized to the grid that can
increase the output immediately in response to a major
outage and can reach full capacity within 10 minutes –
defined by Hirst and Kirby
B. The additional output which a partly-loaded generating
unit or plant is able to supply and sustain within 5
minutes – British Electricity International
C. The total synchronized capacity minus the load and the
losses – Wood and Wollenberg
D. Unloaded generation which is synchronized and ready to
serve additional demand – NERC
CONSTRAINTS IN UNIT COMMITMENT:
1)ASPINNING
 RESERVE:
broad definition of spinning reserve would be as
follows.
“The unused capacity which can be activated on decision
by the system operator and which is provided by
generators synchronized to the grid and capable of
supplying active power”.
“Spinning Reserve = (Sum of capacities of all units
synchronized at a time) – (Load
demand + Losses in the system at
that time)”
 The spinning reserve is necessary so that the loss of a
CONSTRAINTS IN UNIT COMMITMENT:
1) SPINNING RESERVE:
 There should be sufficient reserve in the system so that in
the event of loss of a unit, the other units can take up the
load within a specified time period.
 The spinning reserve can be calculated in any of the
following ways.
1)It must be sufficient to meet the loss of the most heavily
loaded unit in the system.
2)It can be specified as a percentage of forecasted peak
demand.
3)It can be a function of probability of not having
sufficient generation to meet the load demand.
CONSTRAINTS IN UNIT COMMITMENT:
1) SPINNING RESERVE:
 The spinning reserve can be mathematically stated as,
;
Where, - Power generation limit of unit at time t, MW
- Committing status of unit at time t, =1 (ON) =0 (OFF)
- Load demand at time t, MW
- Spinning Reserve at time t, MW
2) THERMAL UNIT CONSTRAINTS:
 Thermal units can respond only to gradual changes in
temperature.
 Hence, a minimum time period is required to bring the
thermal unit online or commit the unit.
CONSTRAINTS IN UNIT COMMITMENT:
2) THERMAL UNIT CONSTRAINTS :
 This poses some constraints on the Unit Commitment
problem as follows.
a) Minimum-up time:
This is the minimum time for which a unit once committed
should run, i.e., it should not be turned off immediately.
This can be stated mathematically,

Where, is the Duration for which unit “” is continuously

ON in hr.
is the Minimum-up time for unit “” in hr.
CONSTRAINTS IN UNIT COMMITMENT:
2) THERMAL UNIT CONSTRAINTS :
b) Minimum-down time:
A thermal unit which has been shut down (de-committed)
cannot be started up immediately.
Hence, the minimum down time is the minimum time
required for a unit to turn ON or stay in OFF state.
This can be stated mathematically,

Where, is the Duration for which unit “” is continuously

OFF in hr.
is the Minimum-down time for unit “” in hr.
CONSTRAINTS IN UNIT COMMITMENT:
3) START-UP COSTS OF THERMAL UNITS :
 Start-up costs are the costs incurred in starting a
thermal unit.
 There is a need to balance the start-up costs and the
running costs.
 The total cost of generation in thermal unit is (the hourly
production cost of running the committed units based
on equal incremental costs to meet the required load
demand) + (Spinning reserve and total cost of shutting
down and starting up the unit during the period).
CONSTRAINTS IN UNIT COMMITMENT:
3) START-UP COSTS OF THERMAL UNITS :
 When the load is removed from a thermal unit, the boiler
will either be shutdown (allowed to cool) or it will be
banked (maintained the operating temperature and
pressure).
 In the banking mode, the boiler is isolated from the
steam system at no load and kept at operating pressure
and temperature by intermittent firing of either igniters
or main burner.
CONSTRAINTS IN UNIT COMMITMENT:
3) START-UP COSTS OF THERMAL UNITS :
 The costs of both options (cooling & banking) must be
compared before choosing the best option among them.
 The start-up cost of a thermal unit when the boiler is
allowed to cool can be given by,
Start-up cost (cooling) Rs./hr
Where, - Cost of starting a boiler in cold state in Rs/hr
– No. of hours the unit has been shut down or cooled.
– Cooling time constant of the boiler.
– Maintenance and operation cost and cost of starting
the turbine alone.
CONSTRAINTS IN UNIT COMMITMENT:
3) START-UP COSTS OF THERMAL UNITS :
 The start-up cost of a thermal unit when the boiler is
banked can be given by,
Start-up cost (banking) Rs./hr
Where, - Cost of banking the boiler in Rs/hr
– No. of hours the unit has been banked.
– Maintenance and operation cost and cost of starting
the turbine alone.
 The start-up costs of boiler for both modes are shown
graphically as follows.
CONSTRAINTS IN UNIT COMMITMENT:
3) START-UP COSTS OF THERMAL UNITS :
 From the graph, it is implied BOILER +
TURBINE


that upto a certain number of Start
-up
hours (H), the banking will cost


BANKING COOLING
cost less than cooling. (Rs.)

 Hence, if a unit needs to be K BOILER

recommitted before H hours,


COOLING


it is more economical to run BANKING
the unit on no load rather
H
than shut it down. Time (hr) 
This will determine whether or not a unit will be shut
down.
 CONSTRAINTS IN UNIT COMMITMENT:
4) NETWORK CONSTRAINTS (MUST RUN CONSTRAINTS):
 The transmission network may have an effect on the
Unit Commitment.
 Let us consider a simple power system as shown below.
 Let us assume the cost of 𝑮 𝑮𝟑
𝟏
production for is higher than
𝑮𝟐
and . LOAD
 The transfer of power from and to the load is limited
by the transmission capacity of lines.
 Hence, it is probable that more expensive unit is
committed even though the cheaper units are available.
 CONSTRAINTS IN UNIT COMMITMENT:
4) NETWORK CONSTRAINTS (MUST RUN CONSTRAINTS):
 Similarly, the network interconnections compels some
units must run to provide voltage support.
 Such units are called must-run units.
5) EMISSION CONSTRAINTS:
 Emission Constraints pose a challenge today, as the
emission norms are stringent in view of GHG (Green
House Gases) emissions and global warming.
 This limits the pollutants such as, which the generating
units may emit.
 The constraints are modelled in various ways, such as,
CONSTRAINTS IN UNIT COMMITMENT:
5) EMISSION CONSTRAINTS:
1) Limit on each plant at each hour,
2) Limit on the plant over year,
3) Limit on group of plants over period.

6) Generation Capacity Limits:

While committing a unit, the limits of generations must
be considered which may vary over the period of the day.

Where, - Generation of unit “” at period “”.

CONSTRAINTS IN UNIT COMMITMENT:
7) FUEL CONSTRAINTS:
 Some units may have a limit on the fuel consumption.
 This is a very huge challenge in the recent power
system which include a number of micro grids
operating with different fuels.
8) SECURITY CONSTRAINTS:
 These constraints include the violation of security
associated with a condition of insufficient generating
capacity.
 This can be modelled mathematically as,
CONSTRAINTS IN UNIT COMMITMENT:
8) SECURITY CONSTRAINTS :
Where, - Probability that the system has insufficient
generating capacity at time
– Probability that the system in state at time
– Probability that the state is a condition for which
the load exceeds the generation at time .
– Time in future measured from the hour at which
the system is in known state.
A feasible solution would be that the unit will have
sufficient capacity to supply the load with an acceptable
security, which can be measured by having reliability
values for .
CONSTRAINTS IN UNIT COMMITMENT:
9) HYDEL PLANT CONSTRAINTS :
 Hydel plants do not have operational expenses.
 But, they are required to operate under the constraints
of water availability in a given period of time.
 The problem of minimizing the operating cost in
hydrothermal system can be viewed as one of
minimizing the fuel costs of thermal plants under the
constraints of water availability over a given period of
operation.
UNIT COMMITMENT SOLUTION METHODS:
 A number of approaches or methods are available for
solving the Unit Commitment Problem and they are,
1) Priority List method
2) Dynamic Programming method
3) Lagrangian Relaxation method
4) Linear Programming method
5) Integer Programming method
PRIORITY LIST METHOD:
 This is the simplest Unit Commitment solution method.
 It consists of creating a Priority List of available units.
PRIORITY LIST METHOD:
 When a unit is shut down, the load it carried must be
transferred to other available units.
 By shutting down an inefficient unit, the no-load
running cost of the unit is eliminated.
 Once the unit is shut down, it will have to be started at a
later period when the next peak load approaches.
 The savings in cost gained by shutting down the
inefficient unit may be offset by the cost of starting up
the unit again when needed.
PRIORITY LIST METHOD:
 To determine the optimum shutdown rule for a group of
generating units, the units are ordered according to a
priority rule.
 A simple method is to prepare the priority list based on
the Full-Load Average Production Cost (FLAPC) of each
unit.
 The total production cost for a period is the hourly
production cost plus the cost of shutting down and
starting up the unit during this period.
 All the units will be started up and shut down in a strict
priority order depending on the load at that period.
PRIORITY LIST METHOD:
Example: A plant has three units. The fuel costs of these
units along with their capacity are given below.
Rs./hr, MW
Rs./hr, MW
Rs./hr, MW
Prepare a Priority list for the plant with the load demand
ranging from 500 MW to 1200 MW as shown below.
1200


Load
(MW)
500

4 PM 4 AM 4 PM
Time of a day 
PRIORITY LIST METHOD:

Solution:
 The average production costs of each unit are its
incremental fuel costs.
 So, incremental fuel costs of each unit are computed.
Unit-1: Rs./MWhr.
Unit-2: Rs./MWhr.
Unit-3: Rs./MWhr.
 Let us now calculate the Full-Load () Average Production Cost
of each unit as,
Unit-1: Rs./MWhr.
PRIORITY LIST METHOD:
Unit-2: Rs./MWhr.
Unit-3: Rs./MWhr.
 A priority list (order) for the units based Priority Unit FLAPC
(Rs./MWhr)
on their Full-Load Average Production
1 2 9.402
Cost (FLAPC) is prepared by neglecting
minimum-up time, minimum-down time, 2 1 9.7944
start-up costs and shut-down costs of 3 3 11.8776
them as follows.
 The unit with least priority number is the most economical unit.
 Hence, it is always committed first.
 The commitment scheme for different combinations and given
load is as follows.
PRIORITY LIST METHOD:
Unit Min. generation Max. generation Range of load
Combination capacity (MW) capacity (MW) (MW)
2, 1, 3 300 1200 1200 to 1000
2, 1 250 1000 1000 to 400
2 100 400 < 400

 The commitment rule is simple and is as follows.

1) For MW, run only unit-2.
2) For MW, run the combination of units 2&1.
3) For MW, run the combination of units 2,1&3.
Where includes Load demand and spinning reserve.
PRIORITY LIST METHOD:
ALGORITHM (Shut down rule):
1) Determine the hourly load forecast for next 24 hr. (or any
other period)
2) Prioritize the units based on their FL Average Production
Costs and prepare a priority table based on unit combination
to meet the required load demand.
3) For the first interval (hr.), determine the minimum number of
units necessary to carry the maximum predicted load and the
spinning reserve.
4) Run the required number of units as per priority order.
5) Compare the number of units running in the present interval
with the number of units required for the next interval.
PRIORITY LIST METHOD:
ALGORITHM (Shut down rule):
6) If the number of units required is greater than that running,
start-up the units according to the priority order.
7) If the number of units required is less than that running, then
go to next step.
8) Determine whether dropping the unit with highest priority
number will leave sufficient generation to supply the load
demand + spinning reserve.
9) If yes, go to next step, else, continue the unit as online and
do not shut down the unit.
10)Determine the number of hours (H), after which the unit may
be needed again for service. This period is the shutdown
period of the unit.
PRIORITY LIST METHOD:
ALGORITHM (Shut down rule):
11)If ‘H’ is less than the minimum down time of the unit, then
continue with the present combination and keep the unit
online, else, go to next step.
12)Calculate the two costs.
a) Sum of hourly production cost of the unit for the period of
‘H’ hrs. with the unit is in ON state.
b) Sum of hourly production costs with the unit shut down
and start-up cost of the unit either cooling or banking the
unit whichever is less expensive.
If there is significant saving in cost by shutting down the unit,
then the unit can be shut down or else, keep the unit online or
committed.
PRIORITY LIST METHOD:
ALGORITHM (Shut down rule):
13)Repeat the above procedure in each interval for the next 24
hours (or assumed period).
FLOW CHART:
Initialize
E
Calculate the minimum no. of units must run to satisfy Load +
Spinning reserve for each interval of the period

Compare the number of units running during the present interval

with minimum number of units required in next interval
More no. of Same no. of Less no. of
units required units required units required
A B C
PRIORITY LIST METHOD:
FLOW CHART:
A B C

Start-up the units as Need all units Compare the no. of units running
per priority order to for all ‘H’ hrs. in this interval with that required
meet the requirement in next ‘H’ hours
Need only few units for
Calculate the No change in all ‘H’ hrs.
Start-up cost units committed Shut down the units
based on priority order

Record
shutdown time

D
PRIORITY LIST METHOD:
FLOW CHART: D

Go to next No Are all intervals Yes

interval completed?
Give the hourly unit
E commitment schedule
for entire period

END
 The load is dispatched to the committed units using
Economic Load Dispatch algorithm.
 The period is usually between 24 hrs and 120 hrs (1 – 5 days).
PRIORITY LIST
METHOD:
 The priority list may be recorded as and when
necessary if,
a) Some units are unavailable due to breakdowns /
maintenance.
b) Spinning reserve requirement is changed.
c) Running of some units for area protection to
improve the reliability is mandatory.
DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING METHOD:
 The Dynamic Programming (DP) methods makes use of a
priority list using DP search.
 They are characterized by Forward and Backward path
operations.
 The importance of DP approach is that the problem of finding
the optimum outputs of various units for a given load is
replaced by the problem of finding the optimum outputs of
various units for all loads between the minimum and
maximum capacity of the units.
 The main advantage of this DP approach is that knowing the
optimum way of operating K units, the optimum way of
operating K+1 units can be determined easily.
DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING METHOD:
 In DP method, the commitment of units progress 1 hr at
a time and the combination of schedulable units are
calculated for each hour.
 In backward DP approach, the most economical
schedule is obtained by backtracking from the
combination with the least total cost at the final hour
through the optimal path to the combination at the
initial hour.
 The problem comprises searching the feasible
solutions for the optimal solution.
 This is bit difficult.
DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING METHOD:
 In order to reduce the unit combinations to be tried, the
DP is combined with heuristic methods to generate the
unit combinations.
 The algorithm for DP method would result in correct
unit commitment only if the following conditions are
satisfied.
1) No-load costs are not considered.
2) Unit Input-output characteristics are linear between
zero output and full load.
3) No other constraints are considered.
4) Start-up do not vary and are fixed amounts.
DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING METHOD:
 In this DP method, the following assumptions are made.
1) For all units, the individual production costs are
known in advance.
2) The load cycle is known in advance.
3) The load on each unit changes in small steps.
4) The start-up and shut-down costs are neglected.
5) There is a strict priority order specified.
 In this method, knowing the optimal way loading K
units, it is easy to determine the optimal loading of
(K+1) units.
 This is a forward DP approach.
DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING METHOD:
 In this approach, the computations starts with an initial
state in initial period and move forward to decide the
units to be committed.
 “A State is an array of units where specified units are
committed and operating, while the rest of the units are
off-line”
 “A feasible state is a state in which the units that are
committed are sufficient to meet the required load
demand.”
 The DP algorithm selects the optimal state from the set
of feasible states.
 In DP algorithm, the following two quantities are defined.
DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING METHOD:
1) Cost of generating power of ‘’ MW with N th unit
operating alone
2) Cost of generating power of ‘’ MW with all the N units
operating.
 With the above parameters defined, the application of
DP results in a recursive relation which is given by,

Where, ‘’ MW are generated by N units, out of which, ‘’

MW are generated by the Nth unit at a cost of and
remaining ‘’ MW are generated by remaining N-1 units.
DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING METHOD:
 From the above recursive formula, the combination of
units are determined which gives minimum operating
costs for various loads in convenient steps.
FORWARD DP APPROACH:
 The DP-SC algorithm can be used to develop a forward
DP algorithm for ‘H’ time intervals from the present
time interval.
 This algorithm takes into account, the start-up cost
also.
DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING METHOD:
 The following nomenclature is used in this algorithm.
1) K : Time period or interval (Total period of operation
can be divided into various intervals for scheduling).
2) C : Combination of units and is called as states.
3) X : No. of states (combination of units) which have to
be searched in each time interval.
If all the combinations of units are considered, then
for N units, .
If priority list is used, then for N units, X = N
4) Y : No of paths or strategies saved at each interval
from X states which have been searched.
DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING METHOD:
A strategy is the transition or path from one state at a
given time interval to a state at the next time interval
5) (K,C) : A state C at Kth interval.
6) : Minimum production cost for state C from initial
interval to specific interval K.
7) : Incremental start-up cost or transition cost from
state L in interval K-1 to state C in the interval K.
8) : Minimum generation or production cost in
supplying load demand with state C during the
interval K.
DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING METHOD:
 The forward DP approach is recursive and computes the
minimum cost at a period K with the combination of
units C.
 The recursive formula can be depicted to calculate the
cost of satisfying load demand with the combination of
units C as follows.

Where, is the set of Y states retained in the interval.

 The flowchart for the forward DP approach is as shown
below.
DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING METHOD:
FLOWCHART: START

K=1

𝑚𝑖𝑛
𝑭 𝑪𝒐𝒔𝒕 ( 𝑲 , 𝑪 ) = { 𝑳} { 𝑷 𝑪𝒐𝒔𝒕 ( 𝑲 , 𝑪 ) +𝑺 𝑪𝒐𝒔𝒕 ( 𝑲 −𝟏 , 𝑳 : 𝑲 , 𝑪 ) }
B For all states ‘X’ in
present interval
K=K+1

= No. of feasible states Y in interval (K-1)

𝑚𝑖𝑛
𝑭 𝑪𝒐𝒔𝒕 ( 𝑲 , 𝑪 ) = { 𝑳} { 𝑷 𝑪𝒐𝒔𝒕 ( 𝑲 , 𝑪 ) +𝑺 𝑪𝒐𝒔𝒕 ( 𝑲 −𝟏 , 𝑳: 𝑲 , 𝑪 )+ 𝑭 𝑪𝒐𝒔𝒕 ( 𝑲 −𝟏 , 𝑳 ) }
For all states ‘X’
A in interval K
DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING METHOD:
FLOWCHART:
A

Save the feasible states Y with lowest cost strategies

No Is K = last Yes
B
interval?
Trace the optimal
schedule

END
THANK YOU