Evolutionary programming based optimal power flow algorithm

Summary form only given. This paper develops an evolutionary programming (EP) based optimal power flow (OPF) solution algorithm which makes use of an EP load flow. Solution acceleration concepts are implemented which improve the basic EP algorithm. This acceleration is implemented using the gradient information obtained using the steepest descent method to perform a local search. The method is capable of determining the global optimum solution to the OPF for a range of constraints and objective functions. The algorithm is not sensitive to starting points and is capable of handling nonconvex generator cost curves. The performances of the algorithm when applied to the IEEE 30-bus test system under different generator input-output curves are presented.