Shuffled Frog Leaping Algorithm (SFLA) for Short Term Optimal Scheduling of Thermal Units with Emission Limitation and Prohibited Operational Zone (POZ) Constraints

Objectives: The objective of this paper is to decide the startup and shut down status of thermal generating units to meet the fluctuating load over a limited period at a lowest cost and also with lowest emission. Methods/Analysis: This paper presents Shuffled Frog Leaping Algorithm to explain short term Unit Commitment Problem solution with regard to Emission limitation and Prohibited Operating Zone (POZ) constraint. Findings: Fuel cost savings can be obtained by proper commitment of the available generating units. The total operating cost includes both the fuel cost and cost associated with the startup, shut down and maintenance of units. A variety of constraints like spinning reserve, generation limit constraint, minimum up time, minimum down time, system power balance and response rate constraints like ramp up constraint, ramp down constraint and prohibited operating zone constraints are considered for investigation. Novelty /Improvement: The problem is solved using an integer coded Shuffled Frog Leaping Algorithm which offers a practical unit commitment problem. A MATLAB code has been developed to explain the unit commitment problem using SFLA. The results are extensively validated for standard IEEE 39 bus with 10 units system. The results obtained are compared with existing method.