Thermal generating unit maintenance scheduling by multi-stage application of simulated annealing

This paper presents a multi-stage approach for maintenance scheduling of generating units by simulated annealing. The maintenance procedures are classified into three types differing in outage duration. In the first stage of the scheduling, feasible combinations of maintenance schedule are sought by iterative application of simulated annealing. In the second stage, introduction of minor maintenance is determined to maintain the required reserve rate. In the third stage, based on the feasible mix of maintenance schedule, a global optimum solution is attained by simulated annealing. The effectiveness of the proposed approach was evaluated by a practical size model analysis and comparison with the enumeration method