Hybridization of Chaotic Grey Wolf Optimizer and Dragonfly Algorithm for Short-Term Hydrothermal Scheduling

The short-term hydrothermal scheduling (STHS) is a complicated optimization problem, considering valve-point effect (VPE) and transmission losses, it exhibits the characteristics of nonlinearities and non-smoothness which increase the difficulty of solving the problem. Responding to these challenges, a hybrid algorithm that comprises chaotic local search technique, grey wolf optimizer, and dragonfly algorithm (CGWO-DA) is proposed to settle the STHS problem. The grey wolf optimizer (GWO) has strong local search ability with the slow convergence rate. The dragonfly algorithm (DA) owns superior global search capability and fast convergence rate, however, it exerts premature convergence and is easy to fall into local optimum. Using the chaotic local search as a supplement, the hybrid algorithm combined by two excellent algorithms can improve the shortcoming of each algorithm and enhance the exploration and exploitation of the algorithm simultaneously. In addition, two novel constraints handling strategies are presented to resolve the complicated equality constrains and guarantee the feasibility of solutions. Three systems have been tested by the proposed methodology. The solutions are compared with the ones from other available literatures, the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach are well demonstrated, and the findings of case studies show that the proposed method has great competitive advantages to obtain better scheduling schemes.