Combining of Direct Search and Signal-to-Noise Ratio for economic dispatch optimization

This paper integrated the ideas of Direct Search and Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) to develop a Novel Direct Search (NDS) method for solving the non-convex economic dispatch problems. NDS consists of three stages: Direct Search (DS), Global SNR (GSNR) and Marginal Compensation (MC) stages. DS provides a basic solution. GSNR searches the point with optimization strategy. MC fulfills the power balance requirement. With NDS, the infinite solution space becomes finite. Furthermore, a same optimum solution can be repeatedly reached. Effectiveness of NDS is demonstrated with three examples and the solutions were compared with previously published results. Test results show that the proposed method is simple, robust, and more effective than many other previously developed algorithms.