Test cases for unit commitment and hydrothermal scheduling problems

Generation scheduling and other types of optimization problems for hydrothermal systems have been studied for more than 60 years. A large number of algorithms and solving strategies have already been proposed in the literature. Despite of this huge amount of publications, we still lack the existence of standardized test systems that can be used to benchmark the performance and solution quality of so many proposed techniques. In this sense, this paper proposes some test cases that can be used to unit commitment and hydrothermal scheduling problems both in regulated and deregulated markets. Electrical network data are taken from the 24, 57, 118 and 300-bus IEEE-based test systems, which were fictitiously linked to a set of up to 20 thermal units and more than 100 hydro units. Hydro data are based on the real Brazilian system and include cascaded reservoirs, water delay times, and hydro plants input-output curves. Thermal data are taken from the literature.