A Simulated Annealing based approach to solve the generator maintenance scheduling problem

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2011

Authors

João Tomé Saraiva (Author) FEUP; Marcelo Leandro Pereira (Author) FEUP; Virgílio Torrado Mendes (Author) FEUP; José Carlos Sousa (Author) FEUP

Journal

Title: Electric Power Systems Research

Vol. 81 No. 7

Pages: 1283-1291

ISSN: 0378-7796

Publisher: Elsevier

Indexing

ISI Proceedings

ISI Web of Knowledge - 49 Citations

ISI Web of Science

Scopus - 62 Citations

INSPEC

Scientific classification

FOS: Engineering and technology > Electrical engineering, Electronic engineering, Information engineering

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-002-Q40

DOI: 10.1016/j.epsr.2011.01.013

Abstract (EN): The scheduling of maintenance actions of generators is not a new problem but gained in recent years a new interest with the advent of electricity markets because inadequate schedules can have a significative impact on the revenues of generation companies. In this paper we report the research on this topic developed during the preparation of the MSc Thesis of the second author. The scheduling problem of generator maintenance actions is formulated as a mixed integer optimization problem in which we aim at minimizing the operation cost along the scheduling period plus a penalty on energy not supplied. This objective function is subjected to a number of constraints detailed in the paper and it includes binary variables to indicate that a generator is in maintenance in a given week. This optimisation problem was solved using Simulated Annealing. Simulated Annealing is a very appealing metaheuristic easily implemented and providing good results in numerous optimization problems. The paper includes results obtained for a Case Study based on a realistic generation system that includes 29 generation groups. This research work was proposed and developed with the collaboration of the third and fourth authors, from EDP Produção, Portugal.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 9