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A New Hybrid Binary-Real Coded Cuckoo Search and Tabu Search

Algorithm for Solving the Unit-Commitment Problem

Article · April 2021

DOI: 10.4018/IJEOE.2021040105

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International Journal of Energy Optimization and Engineering
Volume 10 • Issue 2 • April-June 2021

A New Hybrid Binary-Real Coded Cuckoo

Search and Tabu Search Algorithm for
Solving the Unit-Commitment Problem
Amel Terki, University Mohamed Saddik Ben Yahia, Jijel, Algeria
Hamid Boubertakh, University Mohamed Seddik Ben Yahia, Jijel, Algeria

ABSTRACT

This paper proposes a new intelligent optimization approach to deal with the unit commitment (UC)
problem by finding the optimal on/off states strategy of the units under the system constraints. The
proposed method is a hybridization of the cuckoo search (CS) and the tabu search (TS) optimization
techniques. The former is distinguished by its efficient global exploration mechanism, namely the
levy flights, and the latter is a successful local search method. For this sake, a binary code is used for
the status of units in the scheduled time horizon, and a real code is used to determine the generated
power by the committed units. The proposed hybrid CS and TS (CS-TS) algorithm is used to solve
the UC problem such that the CS guarantees the exploration of the whole search space, while the TS
algorithm deals with the local search in order to avoid the premature convergence and prevent from
trapping into local optima. The proposed method is applied to the IEEE standard systems of different
scales ranging from 10 to 100 units. The results show clearly that the proposed method gives better
quality solutions than the existing methods.

KEywORdS
Cuckoo Search Algorithm, Power System, Tabu Search Algorithm, Unit Commitment Problem

1. INTROdUCTION

Power systems are a grid of electric components working together in order to generate, transport and
distribute electric energy in order to supply the consumers of a specific area. The power generation
industry plays a crucial role in power systems reliability by trading off between satisfying the energy
load demand and maximizing the profit. The Unit Commitment (UC) problem is one of the biggest
challenges of the power industry. The problem consists in the minimization of the power generation
cost to meet the forecasted demand by finding the right strategy of the On/Off status of the generating
units during each interval of the scheduling period. This is accomplished under a large set of operating
constraints, such as the generator power output limits, system spinning reserve, ramp rate limits, and
minimum up and down times of the units (Kaveh et al., 2009; Park et al., 2014).

DOI: 10.4018/IJEOE.2021040105

Copyright © 2021, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

104
 International Journal of Energy Optimization and Engineering
Volume 10 • Issue 2 • April-June 2021

The UC problem can be seen as two correlated sub problems; the first one which belongs to the
class of mixed-integer nonlinear programming problems. It aims in determining the best On/Off state
strategy of the generating units in the planning horizon. The second one, which belongs to the class of
the quadratic programming optimization problems, consists in finding the optimal dispatching to meet
the forecasted load demand among the committed units during the scheduling period (Gharehpetian,
2010; Simopoulos et al., 2006).

1.1 Related works and Motivation

Several conventional optimization approaches have been proposed in the literature to solve the UC
problem. Among them, one finds some, such as Dynamic Programming (DP) (Pang et al., 1981; Snyder
et al., 1987), Priority List (PL) (Govardhan, 2016) and Lagrangian Relaxation (LR) (Benhamida, &
Bendaoud, 2010; Kazarlis et al., 1996). These methods are characterized by a simple representation
and fast convergence, but unfortunately the quality of the solution is not guaranteed and they are
often trapped in local optima, particularly while handling large-scale systems.
Nowadays, intelligent optimization is presented as an efficient alternative to overcome the
difficulties of the classical optimization approaches, that is, by offering parallel search mechanisms
as a best way to search the global optimum with complex problems. In fact, its popularity keeps
growing among the community of researchers in various fields (Vasant et al., 2020, 2019; Thomas
et al., 2019; Kharchenko and Vasant, 2018, 2019a, 2019b).
Many intelligent approaches has been proposed to deal with the UC problem. Among them, one
finds, Genetic Algorithms (GA) (Damousis et al., 2004; Dudek, 2013; Farag et al., 2015; Swarup
& Yamashiro, 2002), Differential Evolution (DE) (Jeong et al., 2009), Evolutionary Programming
(EP) (Juste et al., 1999), Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA) (Yuan et al., 2014), Harmony Search
Algorithm (HSA) (Pourjamal & Ravadanegh, 2013), Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) (Zand et al.,
2016), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) (Kumar & Singh, 2017), Backtracking Search Algorithm
(BSA) (Pradhan et al., 2017) and Imperialistic Competition Algorithm (ICA) (Hadji & Vahidi, 2012).
The advantage of all this methods lies in both their effectiveness and general applicability. These
methods can handle complex nonlinear constraints and provide high quality solutions. However,
these methods suffer from the curse of dimensionality. In order to combine the advantages of these
methods, some hybrid approaches have been proposed in the literature, one mentions, Hybrid GA
and PSO (GA–PSO) (Archana, 2015), GA Based on PL (GABPL) (Sarjiya et al., 2015), Hybrid PSO
and Grey wolf Optimizer (PSO–GWO) (Kamboj, 2015).
The promising success of these methods has push the researchers to explore new intelligent
optimization methods in order to solve the UC problem. The Cuckoo Search (CS) algorithm, initially
proposed by Yang and Deb (2009), is one of the most powerful among these emerging approaches.
The CS algorithm which has been inspired by the natural behavior of cuckoos, has been applied
successfully to different optimization problems (Afanasyeva et al., 2018; Jinang et al., 2016; Singh
& Josan, 2014; Feng et al., 2018; Ladhari et al., 2018; Normansyah et al., 2017; Iglesias et al., 2018;
Liu et al., 2018; Zhao et al., 2017). Moreover, the approach is applied to solve the UC problem
(Chandrasekaran & Simon, 2012; Chitra & Ravichandran, 2014a, 2014b; Liu et al., 2018; Sharma et
al., 2015). In (Chitra & Ravichandran, 2014a, 2014b), the authors have proposed the On/Off status
of a unit based on a signed integer representation. (Chandrasekaran & Simon, 2012), the authors
have developed a fuzzy integrated binary real coded cuckoo search Lagrangian (BCSL) algorithm.
In (Mehta & Verma, 2015), a weight pattern based cuckoo search algorithm is used for 3 and 6 units
system. In (Liu et al., 2018) an improved binary cuckoo search algorithm with a novel priority list
heuristic search method (IBCS) is applied to solve a 4-units system.
Motivated, by the economic challenge of the UC problem, our goal is not only to solve the
problem but even more break record so far. To this end, in this paper one proposes a new hybrid
approach of CS and Tabu Search (TS) (Glover, 1989; Glover, 1990), which one calls CS-TS. This
choice is argued by the fact that among the above cited methods, the CS is the only approach which

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