Dispatching and unit commitment features in TIMES

The Unit Commitment extension of TIMES was developed for modellers wishing to integrate short-term operational decisions for power plants into long-term capacity expansion planning. The intermittency and variability of wind and solar generation require the net load (total demand minus renewables) to be balanced by flexible hydropower, thermal, and storage resources. In such cases, short-term operational constraints may significantly shape long-term investment decisions. This extension allows TIMES to directly incorporate operational constraints of power plants into the energy system framework, enabling daily production scheduling to be aligned with long-term strategic goals. It also supports the assessment of energy policy targets such as CO₂ reduction or renewable penetration while considering system flexibility.