Symbiotic organisms search algorithm for optimal power flow problem based on valve-point effect and prohibited zones

In this study, symbiotic organisms search (SOS) stochastic method is proposed to solve the optimal power flow (OPF) problem with valve-point effect and prohibited zones, which is one of the most important problems of the modern power system. The SOS approach is defined as the symbiotic relationships observed between two organisms in the ecosystem, which do not need the control parameters unlike other meta-heuristic algorithms in the literature. The effectiveness of the proposed SOS method is tested on modified IEEE 30-bus test system. The OPF problem is considered with four different test cases, such as (1) without valve-point effect and prohibited zones, (2) with valve-point effect, (3) with prohibited zones and (4) with valve-point effect and prohibited zones. The obtained results from the SOS algorithm are compared with the other optimization techniques in the literature. The obtained comparison results indicate that proposed approach is effective to reach optimal solution for the OPF problem.