A new method of solving the unit commitment problem

Unit commitment (UC) is a fundamental problem in power systems and has been extensively investigated by many researchers. However, almost all existing approaches are based on integer decision variables. In this paper, we propose an alternative approach, in which the continuous variables (real output power) are the only decision variables. This approach is based on a simple theoretical result, for which a proof is given. Then a new model is presented, followed by several 24-dimensional and 96-dimensional test cases. The results are consistent with those solved by conventional approaches reported in the literature.