Solution of Unit Committment Problem using Improved Shuffled frog Leaping Algorithm

Abstract

This paper presents a new approach for solving Unit commitment (UC) problem of thermal units based on a new evolutionary algorithm known as Shuffled Frog Leaping Algorithm (SFLA). The integer coded algorithm is developed based on the behavior of group of frogs searching for a location that has the maximum amount of available food. This algorithm involves local search and shuffling process and these are repeated until a required convergence is reached. The efficiency and effectiveness of the SFLA is improved by introducing a cognition component which allows the frog to adjust its position according to the thinking of the frog itself along with global and local best of the population. In this proposed method of SFLA for the UC problem, the scheduling variables are coded as integers, so that the minimum up/down time constraints can be handled directly without using any penalty functions. To verify the performance of the proposed algorithm it is applied to the IEEE 14, 30, 56,118 bus systems and 10, 20, 40 unit systems for a one day scheduling period. The results obtained are quite encouraging for the Unit Commitment problem when compared with the existing methods. The algorithm and simulation are carried out using Matlab software.