Hybrid ant system/priority list method for unit commitment problem with operating constraints

This paper presents a new method to solve unit commitment problem with operating constraints using a hybrid ant system/priority list method (HASP). The proposed methodology employs ant system in cooperating with the priority list method to find unit commitment solution as means of mutually combining the advantages of them in that a flexibility of the priority list method is reinforced, while AS algorithm can gain the benefit of using bias information for improving its performance during search process. The simulation results show that the proposed HASP is capable of obtaining satisfactory solution within reasonable computational time. Moreover, the proposed HASP can be extensively applied to handle the ramp rate limits and the operating reserve constraint, which are important for modern power system operation.