Effect of the application of aspiration level on the solution accuracy of Tabu Search in operation planning problem for residential PEFC-CGS

This paper shows the effect of the application of aspiration level (AL) on the solution accuracy of Tabu Search (TS) in optimal operation planning problem for residential PEFC (Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell)-CGS (Co-Generation System). Residential PEFC -CGS has been spreading as one of new distributed power sources that have high total efficiency. Therefore, it becomes essential work to study operation planning method for the residential PEFC-CGS. Previous research applies TS to the operation planning. However, it cannot be said that TS is properly applied due to the disregard of AL. Moreover, in other previous researches concerning TS, the effect of AL application has not been controversial, and not sufficiently studied though Glover who proposed TS pointed out the importance of AL. For these reasons, we simulate operation planning for residential PEFC-CGS using TS with and without AL, and compare the effect on daily operational cost. AL is introduced to TS based on the best solution in the previous search process. The simulation results show that TS is successfully applied to the optimal operation planning for residential PEFC-CGS. Furthermore, it is revealed that the application of AL prevents the misguiding of TS and compensates the loss of contribution rate compared with local search. Meanwhile, the application of AL cancels the contribution rate in some cases, particularly in the case using steep ramping constraint. These results imply the significance to consider whether to apply AL to TS or not.