Unit commitment of thermal generation

The problem of determining a feasible generation schedule for a thermal power system that minimises the cost subject to operating and electrical constraints is formulated as a mixed integer programming problem. The model caters for linear and nonlinear fuel cost relations, exponential start up costs, nonlinear loading rates and limits on generators outputs. The method of solution is based on a branch-and-bound capacitated transshipment approach that allows the exploitation of the engineering characteristics of the problem, resulting in an efficient solution procedure.