Implementing Fuzzy-Logic to Solve the Unit-Commitment Problem of a Ten-Unit Thermal Generation Plant

Abstract

This paper presents an implementation of fuzzy-logic to solve the unit-commitment problem of thermal generation plant with the main objective of obtaining a feasible unit combination for each loading condition while subjected to a variety of constraints. The model in this study contains ten-generation units and the daily load demand is subdivided into 24 intervals. The unit combinations and the corresponding generation scheduling intend to minimize the operating cost. The implementation of fuzzy-logic allows a qualitative description of the behavior of the system: the system's characteristics and the response without the need for exact mathematical formulations. The numerical values obtained by the fuzzy-logic approach are compared with those obtained by the dynamic programming. The results have shown that the proposed fuzzybased approach provides feasible combinations of the generation units and economical cost of operation of these units and have also shown the superiority of the proposed fuzzy-logic approach over the dynamic programming.