EE5512 Power System Operation and Control

Lecture 10 – Unit Commitment (Part A)

Spring 2022

Raheel Zafar
Department of Electrical Engineering
Lahore University of Management Sciences
raheel.zafar@lums.edu.pk

Outline
• Load forecast
• Central question
• Unit commitment
• Economic dispatch vs unit commitment
• Example [Complete enumeration method]

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 Load Forecast
• Electrical power systems experience cycles since human activity follows
cycles.
• The total load on the system has a daily cycle:
• The total load will generally be higher during the daytime and early evening when
industrial loads are high, lights are on, and so forth.
• The total load will generally be lower during the late evening and early morning
when most of the population is asleep.

• In addition, the use of electric power has a weekly cycle:

• The load being lower over weekend days.
• The load being higher in weekdays.

Load Forecast cont..

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 Central Question
• Can we just simply commit enough
units to cover the maximum system
load and leave them running?
• The problem with “commit enough
units and leave them on-line” is one of
economics.
• It is quite expensive to run too many
generating units.
• A great deal of money can be saved by
turning units off (decommitting them)
when they are not needed (when
demand is low).

Unit Commitment
• Unit refers to the generating unit.
• Commitment or to “commit” a generating unit is to “turn it on,” that is:
• to bring the unit up to speed
• synchronize it to the system, and
• connect it so it can deliver power to the network.

• There is a cost associated for turning a unit on.

• There is also a cost for keeping a unit on.
• The problem with “commit enough units and leave them on-line” is
therefore one of economics.

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 Unit Commitment cont..

• The unit commitment (UC) problem determines the commitments of the

generating units with the aim of minimizing the total operating costs while
supplying the demand and meeting technical and security constraints.
• Then, once the commitment of generating units is decided, the economic
dispatch problem determines the actual power output of each generating unit
that is needed to supply the load demand at minimum cost, while complying
with the technical constraints of the transmission network.
• Finally, if both the commitment of generating units and transmission constraints
are considered simultaneously, the resulting problem is known as the network
constrained unit commitment (NCUC) problem.
• These three problems (i.e., economic dispatch, unit commitment, and NCUC) are
mostly considered in electricity markets worldwide including the USA.

Economic Dispatch vs Unit Commitment

• In economic dispatch problem, the unit statuses are already known.
• The economic dispatch problem only dispatches online units that are already
connected to the system, and it does not decommit any units.
• The purpose of the economic dispatch problem is to find the optimum operating
policy for these online 𝑁 units.
• Economic dispatch is not concerned with determining which units to turn
on/off (this is the unit commitment problem).
• Economic dispatch ignores the transmission system limitations
• The solution of ED problem is usually for the current state of the network
and does not typically consider future time periods or load forecast.

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 Economic Dispatch vs Unit Commitment cont..

• The unit commitment problem is more complex than ED problem.

• In UC problem, the unit statuses are to be determined.
• We may assume that we have 𝑵𝒈𝒆𝒏 units available to us and that we have a
forecasted demand to be served.
• The question that is asked in the unit commitment problem area is approximately as
follows:
• Given that there are a number of subsets of the complete set of 𝑁 generating units that would
satisfy the expected demand, which of these subsets should be used in order to provide the
minimum operating cost?
• The unit commitment problem is a much more difficult problem to solve
mathematically since it involves integer variables.
• That is, a generating unit must be either on or off (How can we turn a switch half on?).

Economic Dispatch vs Unit Commitment cont..

• Economic dispatch may cover

• One single period (e.g., 15 minutes) --- most common.
• Multiple periods (e.g., 24 * 1 hour; 12 * 5 minutes).
• Unit commitment may cover
• One single period --- very rare
• Multiple periods over
• 2-4 hours (intraday market)
• 24 hours of a day
• 168 hours of a week
• The solution procedures of unit commitment involve the economic
dispatch problem as a subproblem.

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 Example [Complete Enumeration Method]
Consider a three generator system with
𝐶 𝑃 = 561 + 7.92𝑃 + 0.001562𝑃
𝐶 𝑃 = 310 + 7.85𝑃 + 0.001940𝑃
𝐶 𝑃 = 93.6 + 9.564𝑃 + 0.005784𝑃
and 𝑃 = 550 𝑀𝑊.

The generator limits are

150 ≤ P ≤ 600 MW 100 ≤ P ≤ 400 MW 50 ≤ P ≤ 200 MW

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Example [Complete Enumeration Method] cont..

• If I am to supply a load of 550 MW, what unit or combination of units should be used to
supply this load most economically?
• To solve this problem, simply try all combinations of the three units.
• If way too few units committed
• The combinations of units will be infeasible (i.e., failure to meet the load) if the sum of all maximum
MW for the units committed is less than the load.

• If way too many units committed

• The combination of units will be infeasible if the sum of all minimum MW for the units committed is
greater than the load.

• For each feasible combination, the units will be dispatched using the ED solution
techniques from previous lectures to obtain the optimal combination.
• Optimal combination will have minimum cost while meeting demand and all constraints.

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 Example [Complete Enumeration Method] cont..

G1 G2 G3 PG1 PG2 PG3 Total cost

0 0 0 Infeasible
0 0 1 Infeasible -
0 1 0 Infeasible -
0 1 1 0 400 150 5418
1 0 0 550 0 0 5389
1 0 1 500 0 50 5497
1 1 0 295 255 0 5471
1 1 1 267 233 50 5617
• Least expensive way to supply the generation is not with all three units running or even any combination
involving two units.
• The optimum commitment is to only run unit 1, the most economic unit.
• However, from reliability point of view, more units should be committed.

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Suggested Readings
• Wood | 4.1, 4.2
• Conejo | 7.1

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 Thank you!

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