Economic load dispatch using population-variance harmony search algorithm

This paper presents a novel stochastic optimization approach to solve the constrained economic load dispatch (ELD) problem using the harmonic search algorithm (HS). HS is a recently developed derivative-free, meta-heuristic optimization algorithm, which draws inspiration from the musical process of searching for a perfect state of harmony. This work analyses the evolution of the population-variance over successive generations in HS and thereby draws some important conclusions regarding the explorative power of HS. The proposed methodology easily takes care of solving non-convex ELD problems along with different constraints like transmission losses, ramp rate limits of the generators and prohibited operating zones. Simulations were performed over various standard test systems with different number of generating units and a comparative study is carried out with other existing relevant approaches. The findings affirmed the robustness and proficiency of the proposed methodology over other existing techniques.