Emission constrained unit commitment of Kuwait power generation system using genetic algorithm

Emission Constrained Unit Commitment (ECUC) is an extension of the conventional Unit Commitment (UC) problem that takes into consideration the minimization of the amount of greenhouse gases emitted from generating units in power plants. This paper presents a Genetic Algorithm (GA) solution of ECUC for thermal power plants in Kuwait. GA is an efficient optimization technique based on the principle of biological evolution. This complicated nonlinear ECUC problem is solved in two stages; the first stage uses GA to perform the Economic Dispatch (ED) taken into account all system constraints, while the second stage uses also GA to decide the ON/OFF status of the generating units. The simulation results indicated the efficient convergent of the GA to the final optimal solution of the ECUC in Kuwait generation system.