JES_V2_N4_RP1 Nimain Charan Nayak Journal on Embedded Systems 2278 - 7895 2 4 1 11 Evolutionary Programming, Simulated Annealing, Tabu Search, Unit Commitment This paper presents a new approach to solve the Hydro – Thermal short-term unit commitment problem using hybrid algorithm based on Evolutionary Programming, Simulated Annealing and Tabu Search Method. The objective of this paper is to find the generation scheduling such that the total operating cost can be minimized, when subjected to a variety of constraints. This also means that it is desirable to find the optimal generating unit commitment in the power system for the next H hours. Evolutionary programming is a Global Optimization Technique for solving Unit Commitment Problem that operates on a system, which is designed to encode each unit's operating schedule with regard to its minimum up/down time. Simulated Annealing and Tabu Search methods improve the status by avoiding entrapment in local minima. A seven unit utility power system with twelve generating units in India demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach; Extensive studies have also been performed for different IEEE test systems consisting of 10, 26 and 34 Units. Numerical results are shown comparing the cost solutions and computation time obtained by the proposed hybrid method and other conventional methods like Dynamic Programming, Legrangian Relaxation in reaching proper unit commitment. November 2013 - January 2014 Copyright © 2014 i-manager publications. All rights reserved. i-manager Publications http://www.imanagerpublications.com/Article.aspx?ArticleId=2801