Effectual Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm for the Solution of Non-convex Economic Load Dispatch Problem

The economic load dispatch (ELD) problem is a significant problem in the operation of thermal generating station. It is considered as an optimization problem and is defined for minimized total generation cost, subject to various constraints such as linear constraints and nonlinear constraints in order to meet the power demand. To solve the ELD problem, a new effectual particle swarm optimization (EPSO) algorithm is developed. In this algorithm, the PSO is initialized and the diversity of the PSO is improved by applying the mutation operation of Differential evolution (DE). Enrichment of the population is done by applying the migration operation of Biogeography-based optimization (BBO). Hence, the EPSO algorithm is applied to a non-convex ELD problem to get a better optimal solution. As a result, the total generation cost is much reduced with minimum transmission loss compared to other methods. In order to prove its ability, the EPSO algorithmis applied to a six-unit system.