An optimal control approach to the Unit Commitment problem

The Unit Commitment (UC) problem is a wellknown combinatorial optimization problem arising in operations planning of power systems. It is typically formulated as nonlinear mixed-integer programming problem and has been solved in the literature by a huge variety of optimization methods, ranging from exact methods (such as dynamic programming, branch-and-bound) to heuristic methods (genetic algorithms, simulated annealing, particle swarm). Here, we start by formulating the UC problem as a mixed-integer optimal control problem, with both binary-valued control variables and real-valued control variables. Then, we use a variable time transformation method to convert the problem into an optimal control problem with only real-valued controls. Finally, this problem is transcribed into a finite-dimensional nonlinear programming problem to be solved using an optimization solver.