Particle swarm optimization for economic dispatch of units with non-smooth input-output characteristic functions

This paper proposes an application of particle swarm optimization (PSO) to solve economic dispatch (ED) of units with non-smooth input-output characteristic functions. The IEEE 30-bus system with 6 generating units has been used as the simulation system to show the effectiveness of the algorithm. Results are compared to those detail by evolutionary programming (EP). It shows the PSO can produce slightly better results than those from EP.