International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056 Volume: 04 Issue: 11 | Nov -2017 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072 © 2017, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 6.171 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 814 OPTIMIZATION OF UNIT COMMITMENT PROBLEM USING CLASSICAL SOFT COMPUTING TECHNIQUE (PSO) Sanjeev Kumar 1 , Harkamal Deep Singh 2 1 M.Tech. Research Scholar, Department of EEE, IKGPTU University, Punjab 2 Assistant professor, Department of EEE, IKGPTU University, Punjab ---------------------------------------------------------------------***--------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract: In electrical power system network of transmission and distribution, unit commitment is a complicated decision- making process, which link to the arrangement of generators over a desire of time periods to satisfy power system load demand (industrial and agriculture), operational constraints and system reliability. A classical soft computing (particle swarm optimization) is a technique used to apply for the search space of a given problem to discover out the parameters required to max. or min. a particular objective. This research paper presents the way out to short term (one day) unit commitment of thermal electrical power System using PSO Algorithm. Keywords: Unit Commitment problem (UCP), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). I. INTRODUCTION The unit commitment problem finds out hourly start-up and shut down schedule as well as power output for the generating units over an assured time period. The optimization schedule of units minimizes the total operational cost while satisfying all system constraints and load demand of generating units. In a Unit Commitment Problem, the main aim is to get the minimum total operating cost by a accurate scheduling of the units ON/OFF status of the generators subject to the power system and physical constraints. For a short-term (one day) unit commitment problem such as daily or hourly arrangement of generators, the units operator needs to run the model in real-time. The operator should have instant right to use to information concerning which generators should be operated when emergency situations came up or how to-do list around planned maintenance of generating units. Modern Soft Computing Techniques Particle Swarm Optimization is applied to solve the unit commitment problem. II. PROBLEM FORMULATION Unit commitment is a multifarious decision making process because of the many constraints that must not be desecrated when finding optimal or close to optimal commitment schedules. Mathematically, the Unit Commitment Problem is a mixed-integer, non-linear, combinatorial optimization problem. The optimal solution of above complex UCP in power system can be obtained by classical soft computing global search techniques. The objective function of the short term thermal Unit Commitment Problem is combination of the fuel cost, start-up cost and shut-down cost of the generating units and mathematically can be expressed as [1]: ( 1) ( 1) 1 1 [ ( )* * (1 )* * (1 )* ] H NG NH i ih ih ih ih ih ih ih ih h i Cost FC P U STUC U U SDC U U  (1) Where, NH Cost is the total operating cost over the scheduled horizon ( ) i ih FC P is the fuel cost function of units ( 1) ih U is the ON/OFF status of i th unit at ( 1) th h hour. ih U is the ON/OFF status of i th unit at h th hour. U is the decision matrix of the ih U variable. for i=1,2,3,........NG. ih P is the generation output of i th unit at h th hour. ih STUC is the start-up cost of the i th generating unit at h th hour. ih SDC is the shut-down cost of the i th generating unit at the h th hour. NG is the number of thermal generating units {0,1} ih U and ( 1) {0,1} ih U H is the number of hours in the study of time horizon. (for Short-Term unit Commitment, H is generally taken as 8- 12 Hours or one day. For general unit commitment scheduling H is taken as 24 hours and for long term unit commitment, Time horizon H may be taken as one week , one month, three month, six month or one year duration. (a) Fuel Cost, ( ) i ih FC P The fuel cost function of the thermal unit ( ) i ih FC P is expressed as a quadratic equation: 2 1 ( ) ( ) $/ . NG ih i ih i ih i i FC P aP bP c hrs (2)