Application of genetic-based neural networks to thermal unit commitment

A new approach using genetic algorithms based neural networks and dynamic programming (GANN-DP) to solve power system unit commitment problems is proposed in this paper. A set of feasible generator commitment schedules is first formulated by genetic-enhanced neural networks. These pre-committed schedules are then optimized by the dynamic programming technique. By the proposed approach, learning stagnation is avoided. The neural network stability and accuracy are significantly increased. The computational performance of unit commitment in a power system is therefore highly improved. The proposed method has been tested on a practical Taiwan Power (Taipower) thermal system through the utility data. The results demonstrate the feasibility and practicality of this approach.