MSFLA/GHS/SFLA-GHS/SDE algorithms for economic dispatch problem considering multiple fuels and valve point loadings

This paper presents modern approaches for solving economic dispatch (ED) problem considering multiple fuels in one example, and both valve-point effects and multiple fuels in another example. In this paper, modern heuristic methods such as modified shuffled frog leaping algorithm (MSFLA), global-best harmony search algorithm (GHS), hybrid algorithms such as SFLA-GHS and shuffled differential evolution (SDE) are considered to solve this ED problem. A novel constraint handling technique along with penalty factor method is proposed and applied for all methods. The proposed approaches do not have the drawbacks of the classical heuristics such as local optimal trapping due to premature convergence, insufficient capability to find nearby extreme points, and lack of efficient mechanism to treat the constraints. The effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed methods were demonstrated on 10 unit system case studies and compared with existing methods in the literature. The experiments showed that the proposed approaches were capable of determining higher quality solution while addressing the ED problems. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.