Solution of emission constrained Unit Commitment problem using Shuffled Frog Leaping Algorithm

Unit Commitment(UC) of thermal units is a complex constrained optimization problem. Introduction of environmental factors have made the UC problem more complex. In this paper the environmental constrained UC is solved using the evolutionary technique known as Shuffled Frog Leaping Algorithm (SFLA). This is based on the behavior of group of frogs searching for a location that has the maximum amount of available food. Possible solutions are grouped into memeplexes. The local search process is carried out to share ideas between the frogs within the memeplex. Shuffling process is carried out to share ideas between the memeplexes. Local search and shuffling process are repeated until a required convergence is reached. In this proposed method of SFLA for the UC problem, the scheduling variables are coded as integers, to handle minimum up/down time constraints at the coding stage itself. The proposed algorithm is tested on IEEE 30 bus system and the results are quiet encouraging.