Search Space Reduction for the Thermal Unit Commitment Problem through a Relevance Matrix
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
A strategy to reduce the search space in the thermal unit commitment problem was presented in this paper. A relevance matrix is generated to indicate how important each generating unit is at each hour of the operational planning. Its effectiveness was verified by comparing with approaches found in the literature. This reviewer have the following concerns:
(1) Equation (10) seems to be incomplete.
(2) The process of generating the decision matrix and the process of checking the feasibility should be introduced more clearly. It is better to have a simple example to illustrate it.
(3) It is suggested to draw a diagram to explain the flow of the algorithm used in this paper.
(4) In the relevance matrix, how to determine the criteria of low relevance level? Please explain the specific determination method.
(5) What are the characteristics of unit commitment methods in different literatures listed in Table 11. What is the substantive difference between this method and existing search space reduction methods.
Author Response
We thank the reviewer for the helpful comments. We have made the best effort to accommodate your invaluable suggestions. Text modifications made in the paper are in blue color.
(1) It was indeed incomplete. We fixed it and also corrected the summation index, which was incorrect (see it below line 100 of the new version).
(2) The explanation to the process of obtaining the decision matrix was expanded and made more understandable (subsection 3.3, which begins in line 149). The procedure to check and fix feasibility was significantly improved (from line 159 to 170). Figure 1 (page 5) was added to provide an example.
(3) Figure 2 (page 6) was created to present a flowchart of the proposed method.
(4) An explanation was included. Please see lines 213 to 217.
(5) A discussion was written to address the reviewer's comment. Please see lines 291 to 297.
Reviewer 2 Report
Please see the attached file.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
We thank the reviewer for the helpful comments. We have made the best effort to accommodate your invaluable suggestions. Text modifications made in the paper are in blue color.
References:
- About the 2 papers missing DOI, they do not have DOI. Therefore, the citation in line 27 was replaced by another paper that has DOI and makes the same statement. Analogously, the citation in line 117 was replaced by another paper that has DOI and makes the same statement.
- It is now fixed (see line 22).
- A Mosek reference was added. Please see the citation in line 244 and reference 32.
Section 1 (Introduction) - we added 3 of the suggested papers to the references. In the new version of the paper, they are references 6, 13 and 14.
Section 2 (Thermal unit commitment problem)
- A motivation to the cost function was included. Please see lines 72 to 74.
- There were mistakes in these equations regarding the usage of the w index. The equations were corrected (below line 91, page 3).
- An explanation to the t_csu_i parameter was added (all other parameters and variables have been described in previous equations). Equation 10 had the same error regarding the usage of the w index, which is now fixed (below line 100).
Section 3 (Proposed method)
- A reference was added to support the number of combinations (line 107).
- A more detailed description of this part was provided. It was done in form of an additional step ("Retrieve the HPLs"). The process explanation in general was significantly improved since it was also a request from Reviewer 1. Please see subsection 3.3, from line 149.
The typos mentioned in the "Minor Comments" were corrected (lines 47 and 108).
