Unit Commitment

Unit Commitment (UC) is the problem of deciding which power generation units should be switched on or off over a planning horizon (typically 24-168 hours) to minimize total operating cost while meeting demand and reserve requirements. Introduced by Baldwin et al. in 1959, UC is a fundamental scheduling problem in power system operations, combining combinatorial optimization (which units to commit) with continuous optimization (optimal power output). UC remains one of the most important and computationally challenging problems in power systems.