Optimal operational planning for cogeneration system using particle swarm optimization

This paper proposes optimal operational planning for cogeneration system (CGS) using particle swarm optimization (PSO). CGS is usually connected to various facilities such as refrigerators, reservoirs, and cooling towers. In order to generate optimal operational planning for CGS, startup and shutdown status, and input values of the facilities for each control interval should be determined. The facilities may have nonlinear input-output characteristics. Therefore, the problem can be formulated as a mixed-integer nonlinear optimization problem (MINLP). PSO can be easily expanded to treat MINLP. The simple expansion of PSO for the optimal generation system operational planning problem is proposed and the proposed method is applied to typical CGS planning problems with promising results.