Medium scale multi-constraint economic load dispatch using hybrid metaheuristics

This paper reports the application of a hybrid metaheuristic — a combination of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) methods, in midscale thermal power dispatch problem with transmission losses. The hybrid technique applies ACO over output obtained by PSO to get an economic load dispatch (ELD) solution close to global optima. In the present study the hybrid technique has been experimented with a 15-generator system by considering generator capacity constraints, prohibited operating zones (POZ), ramp rate limits (RRL) and valve point loading (VPL) in addition to transmission loss. MATLAB simulation has been done for three test cases involving different combinations of constraints. This unique study comes up with encouraging results wherein the generation cost, loss and convergence are better than that yielded by other hybrid methods.