Seeker Optimization Algorithm for Optimal Reactive Power Dispatch

Optimal reactive power dispatch problem in power systems has thrown a growing influence on secure and economical operation of power systems. However, this issue is well known as a nonlinear, multimodal and mixed-variable problem. In the last decades, computation intelligence-based techniques, such as genetic algorithms (GAs), differential evolution (DE) algorithms and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms, etc., have often been used for this aim. In this work, a seeker optimization algorithm (SOA)-based reactive power dispatch method is proposed. The SOA is based on the concept of simulating the act of human searching, where the search direction is based on the empirical gradient by evaluating the response to the position changes and the step length is based on uncertainty reasoning by using a simple Fuzzy rule. In this study, the algorithm's performance is evaluated on benchmark function optimization. Then, the SOA is applied to optimal reactive power dispatch on standard IEEE 57- and 118-bus power systems, and compared with conventional nonlinear programming method, two versions of GAs, three versions of DE algorithms and four versions of PSO algorithms. The simulation results show that the proposed approach is superior to the other listed algorithms and can be efficiently used for optimal reactive power dispatch.