Particle Swarm Optimization Using Levy Distribution for Economic Load Dispatch Problem

Economic Load Dispatch (ELD) problem is an important optimization problem in power system and has attracted researchers' attention. This paper presents particle swarm optimization (PSO) using Levy distribution (LDPSO) to solve ELD problem with valve point effect. Levy distribution has an infinite second moment with heavy tail. Through adding Levy distribution disturbance in the global position of PSO, it can avoid falling into local optimum and increase the performance of PSO algorithm. The paper introduces the implementation method of LDPSO in detail. The proposed algorithm is used to solve 13 units ELD problem with valve point effect. The results shows that LDPSO can successfully find optimum solution and maintain fast search speed.