Improved Real-Coded Genetic Algorithm Solution for Unit Commitment Problem Considering Energy Saving and Emission Reduction Demands

Unit commitment(UC), as a typical optimization problem in electric power system, faces new challenges as energy saving and emission reduction get more and more important in the way to a more environmentally friendly society. To meet these challenges, we propose a UC model considering energy saving and emission reduction. By using real-number coding method, swap-window and hill-climbing operators, we present an improved real-coded genetic algorithm(IRGA) for UC. Compared with other algorithms approach to the proposed UC problem, the IRGA solution shows an improvement in effectiveness and computational time.