Multi-layered Feed-forward Back Propagation Neural Network Approach for Solving Short-term Thermal Unit Commitment

This paper presents an approach for solving the short-term thermal unit commitment (UC) problem using a multi-layered Feed-forward Back propagation Neural Network (FF-BPNN). The main focus of the paper is on finding the schedule of committed thermal units within a short computational time such that the total operating cost is minimized. The proposed method is implemented and tested on a 3-unit and 10-unit systems for a scheduling period of 4-hours and 24-hours respectively in MATLAB software using the Neural Network toolbox. Comparison of simulation results of the proposed method with the results of previous published methods shows that the proposed FF-BPNN method provides better solution with less computational time.