Real power dispatch with prohibited operating zones and transmission losses using grey wolf optimizer

In this paper, a new and efficient Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO) algorithm is implemented to solve economic load dispatch (ELD) problems. The nonlinear ELD problem is one the most important and fundamental optimization problem which minimize the total fuel cost in generating real power output by satisfying all the constraints. Conventional methods can solve the ELD problem with good solution quality with assumptions like piecewise linear, monotonically increasing in nature are assigned to fuel cost curves. Otherwise these methods converge to suboptimal or infeasible solutions. The leadership hierarchy and hunting mechanism of grey wolves is mimicked in the GWO algorithm. The leadership hierarchy is simulated using the alpha, beta, delta and omega grey wolves. In addition, searching, encircling and attacking of prey are the social behaviors implemented in the hunting mechanism. The GWO algorithm has been applied to solve convex ELD problems considering ramp rate limits, prohibited operating zones (POZ) and transmission losses. The results obtained from GWO algorithm are compared with those obtained by other meta heuristic algorithms available in the recent literatures. It is found that the GWO algorithm is able to provide better solution quality in terms of cost, convergence and robustness for the considered ELD problems.