Abstract
Given the combinatorial explosion related to the operation decisions in the thermal unit commitment problem, this paper presents a new strategy to reduce the search space and to start the multi-modal optimization process. To achieve such goals, a relevance matrix is obtained to indicate how important each generating unit is at each hour of the operational planning. This matrix is generated through the results of a constructive heuristic based on sensitivity indexes that account for operational and economic characteristics of the generating units and of the system under planning. The proposed method is shown to reduce the complexity of the problem, thus decreasing the combinatorial explosion and, consequently, the computational burden. Its effectiveness is verified by performing optimizations with and without its utilization. The results achieved with the proposed space-reduction approach enable solutions that present good quality. Furthermore, these solutions are retrieved with significantly reduced processing time.