Enhanced probability-selection artificial bee colony algorithm for economic load dispatch: A comprehensive analysis

The prime motive of economic load dispatch (ELD) is to optimize the production cost of electrical power generation through appropriate division of load demand among online generating units. Bio-inspired optimization algorithms have outperformed classical techniques for optimizing the production cost. Probability-selection artificial bee colony (PS-ABC) algorithm is a recently proposed variant of ABC optimization algorithm. PS-ABC generates optimal solutions using three different mutation equations simultaneously. The results show improved performance of PS-ABC over the ABC algorithm. Nevertheless, all the mutation equations of PS-ABC are excessively self-reinforced and, hence, PS-ABC is prone to premature convergence. Therefore, this research work has replaced the mutation equations and has improved the scout-bee stage of PS-ABC for enhancing the algorithm's performance. The proposed algorithm has been compared with many ABC variants and numerous other optimization algorithms on benchmark functions and ELD test cases. The adapted ELD test cases comprise of transmission losses, multiple-fuel effect, valve-point effect and toxic gases emission constraints. The results reveal that the proposed algorithm has the best capability to yield the optimal solution for the problem among the compared algorithms.