Generation scheduling and the Switching Curve Law

The Switching Curve Law is an analytic procedure derived from the dual of t he Lagrangian Relaxation approach to the static unit commitment (SUC) probl em, It is argued here that this analytic result provides a new understandin g of the general unit commitment problem not otherwise possible from numeri cal methods. Moreover, the SUC problem and the analytic results presented h ere have direct applications in the scheduling of hydro generation in power plants and in the interpretation of the pricing rules of the England and W ales Power Pool.