The invention provides an integral optimization method and system for an automatic power generation system of a coal-fired unit. The method comprises the steps of carrying out control valve flow characteristic test and adjustment according to control valve flow characteristic parameters, carrying out combustion optimization on a wind and smoke subsystem and a combustion subsystem, carrying out a fuel disturbance test and a control valve disturbance test to generate typical test parameters, using the typical test parameters to generate a dynamic unit model, constructing a coordinating simulation system according to a coordinating controller and the dynamic unit model, using the dynamic unit model to optimize a feedforward controller and carry out simulation verification on the coordinating simulation system simultaneously, carrying out DCS configuration and parameter debugging in the simulation system, carrying out a constant-voltage slide-voltage variable-load test and a constant-load voltage-transformation test to generate technical indexes of the variable-load rate, the variable-load accuracy, variable-load response time and the main steam pressure accuracy, judging whether the technical indexes meet the preset technical indexes, and if on yes judgment, carrying out a slide-voltage variable-load test to enable the coal-fired unit to operate normally.