Large-scale unit commitment under uncertainty: an updated literature survey

The Unit Commitment problem in energy management aims at finding the optimal production schedule of a set of generation units, while meeting various system-wide constraints. It has always been a large-scale, non-convex, difficult problem, especially in view of the fact that, due to operational requirements, it has to be solved in an unreasonably small time for its size. Recently, growing renewable energy shares have strongly increased the level of uncertainty in the system, making the (ideal) Unit Commitment model a large-scale, non-convex and uncertain (stochastic, robust, chance-constrained) program. We provide a survey of the literature on methods for the Uncertain Unit Commitment problem, in all its variants. We start with a review of the main contributions on solution methods for the deterministic versions of the problem, focussing on those based on mathematical programming techniques that are more relevant for the uncertain versions of the problem. We then present and categorize the approaches to the latter, while providing entry points to the relevant literature on optimization under uncertainty. This is an updated version of the paper "Large-scale Unit Commitment under uncertainty: a literature survey" that appeared in 4OR 13(2), 115--171 (2015); this version has over 170 more citations, most of which appeared in the last three years, proving how fast the literature on uncertain Unit Commitment evolves, and therefore the interest in this subject

Pricing Mechanisms for Energy Management in Smart Cities

The power supply network, Smart Grid, is one of the most critical infrastructures which help to realize the vision of Smart Cities. Smart GridsSmart Grid can provide a reliable and quality power supply with high efficiency. However, the demand for electricity fluctuates throughout the day, and this variable demand creates power instability leading to an unreliable power supply. The inherent difficulties can be addressed to a certain extent with demand-side managementDemand-Side Management (DSM) that can play a vital role in managing the demand in Smart Grids and Microgrids, by implementing dynamic pricing using Smart Meters. This chapter reviews relevant challenges and recent developments in the area of dynamic electricity pricing by investigating the following pricing mechanismsPricing mechanisms: Time-of-Use PricingTime-of-Use Pricing, Real-Time PricingReal-Time Pricing, Critical Peak PricingCritical Peak Pricing, Day-Ahead PricingDay-Ahead Pricing, Cost Reflective PricingCost Reflective Pricing, Seasonal PricingSeasonal Pricing, and Peak Time RebatePeak Time Rebate PricingPeak Time Rebate Pricing. We also discuss four real-world case studies of different pricing mechanisms adopted in various parts of the world. This chapter concludes with suggestions for future research opportunities in this field