An Improved Beetle Antennae Search Algorithm and Its Application on Economic Load Distribution of Power System

The beetle antennae search algorithm (BAS) is a new heuristic algorithm proposed in 2017. BAS is a simulation optimization algorithm based on beetle antennae, which determine the direction of flight by sensing the smell of food and thereby find the food. The BAS algorithm has been proven to have better optimization speed and precision when searching for solutions to low-dimensional problems. However, when solving high-dimensional problems, the algorithm easily falls into a local optimum. To improve the search ability of BAS, this paper introduces inertia weight, which leads the algorithm to perform a global search in early stages and a local search in later stages, which greatly improves the optimization precision of the algorithm. Economic load distribution (ELD) is a typical optimization problem in power systems. This paper analyses the problem of ELD and its mathematical model and then uses a 3-machine 6-node example to apply the improved BAS algorithm to ELD. Finally, the improved BAS algorithm is compared with PSO and other algorithms on the basis of the optimization results of test functions. The conclusion is drawn that the improved BAS algorithm has advantages in dealing with ELD problems.