When large amounts of wind power and solar photovoltaic (PV) power are integrated into an independent power grid, the intermittent renewable energy destabilizes power output. Therefore, this study explored the unit commitment (UC) optimization problem; the ramp rate was applied to solve problems with 30 and 10 min of power shortage. The data of actual unit parameters were provided by the Taiwan Power Company. The advanced priority list method was used together with a combination of a generalized Lagrangian relaxation algorithm and a random feasible directions algorithm to solve a large-scale nonlinear mixed-integer programming UC problem to avoid local and infeasible solutions. The results showed that the proposed algorithm was superior to improved particle swarm optimization (IPSO) and simulated annealing (SA) in terms of the minimization of computation time and power generation cost. The proposed method and UC results can be effective information for unit dispatch by power companies to reduce the investment costs of power grids and the possibility of renewable energy being disconnected from the power system. Thus, the proposed method can increase the flexibility of unit dispatch and the proportion of renewable energy in power generation. Appl. Sci. 2019, 9, 421 2 of 14 solar PV and wind power generation, respectively. The short-term goal comprised a total installed capacity of PV of 1520 MW and cumulative installed capacities of onshore and offshore wind power of 814 and 520 MW, respectively [2].In the traditional unit commitment (UC) problem, the startup and shutdown times of various units and the power output within a dispatch time period of 1 day to 1 week or even 1 month to 1 season are planned according to the system load to achieve the lowest operating cost. In addition, with the load requirement being satisfied, the traditional unit commitment problem ensures that the criteria for the operation of each unit can be met. These criteria include the upper and lower limits of power output for each unit, the ramp rates of the units, and the balance between the supply of and demand for electricity. However, because of the intermittent characteristic of renewable energy, the power output may substantially decrease or increase within a few minutes due to weather events (such as an eclipse, no wind, or strong wind). Such circumstances are typically managed by using pre-established spinning reserves and storage systems [3]. However, all these methods require additional costs and are unable to effectively use renewable energy.Some studies on the ramp rate of power generating units after the integration of renewable energy into the system are described as follows. Correa-Posada et al. used a dynamic ramping model, namely mixed-integer linear programming, which considered the flexibility of ramping limits to reduce the dynamic errors caused during ramping [4]. Ding and Bie used the IEEE 118 bus as an example; the Lagrangian relaxation method was integrated with the diagonal quadratic approximation method to solve t...