Particle swarm optimization with smart inertia factor for solving non-convex economic load dispatch problems

This paper proposes a new approach to solve the non-convex economic dispatch problem using particle swarm optimization with smart inertia factor (PSO-SIF) algorithm in which, inertia coefficients are controlled with respect to cost function in each population. Hence, each population has unique inertia coefficient and as a result unique velocity in convergent direction for the best group solution. The new algorithm has been implemented on four test systems in different dimensions (6, 15, 20 and 40 units) with convex and non-convex cost functions. The numerical results have been compared with the results of a few PSO variants and some recently published results. The results prove the robustness and effectiveness of the proposed method and show that it could be used as a reliable tool for solving optimization problems. Copyright (C) 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.