UNIT COMMITMENT BY TABU SEARCH

An application of the tabu search (TS) method to solve the unit commit ment problem (UCP) is presented. The TS seeks to counter the danger of entrapment at a local optimum by incorporating a memory structure tha t forbids or penalises certain moves that would return to recently vis ited solutions. New rules for randomly generating feasible solutions f or the UCP are introduced. The problem is divided into two subproblems : a combinatorial optimisation problem and a nonlinear programming pro blem, The former is solved using the tabu search algorithm (TSA) while the latter problem is solved via a quadratic programming routine, Num erical results show an improvement in the solution cost compared to pr eviously obtained results.