Maintenance scheduling of generating units in electric power system

New method for solving the maintenance schedule (MS) problem is proposed. Comparative study has been introduced between the proposed method and the other heuristic methods for (MS) for electric generation units. The study was implemented and tested on a model for MS problem. The new model introduces the ratio between cost per reserve power as an index to maximize the system's net reserve with minimum cost. Also, maximizing the net reserve , maximizing the system's net reserve rate and minimizing the system's risk methods were implemented and compared with the proposed method. All methods are subjected to the following constraints: generator unit maintenance duration, time constraint, crew availability, lower reserve limit and lower reserve rate limit.