Ant Colony Optimization for Resolving Unit Commitment Issues by Considering Reliability Constraints

Abstract

Unit Commitment or generator scheduling is one of complex combination issues aiming to obtain the cheapest generating power total costs. Ant Colony Optimization is proposed as a method to solve Unit Commitment issues because it has a better result convergence according to one of journals that reviews methods to solve Unit Commitment issues. Ant Colony Optimization modification into Nodal Ant Colony Optimization as well as addition of several elements are also conducted to overcome Ant Colony Optimization limitations in resolving Unit Commitment issues. Nodal Ant Colony Optimization simulations are then compared with Genetic Algorithm and Simulated Annealing methods which previously has similar simulations. Reliability index combination in a form of Loss of Load Probability and Expected Unserved Energy are also added as reliability constraints in the system. Comparison of three methods shows that Nodal Ant Colony Optimization is able to provide better results up to 0.08% cheaper than Genetic Algorithm or Simulated Annealing methods.