Quasi-oppositional symbiotic organisms search algorithm for different economic load dispatch problems

In this paper, an effective meta-heuristic technique called Quasi-Oppositional Symbiotic Organisms Search is applied for solving non-convex economic dispatch problems. Symbiotic Organisms Search is a soft computing technique, inspired by organisms in the ecosystem. This technique is implemented for improving the solution quality in minimum time. In order to improve convergence rate, quasi-reflected numbers are used here instead of pseudo-random numbers. Different equality and inequality constraints such as transmission loss, load demand, prohibited operating zone, generator operating limits and boundary of ramp rate are considered here. Presence of multiple fuels and valve point are also considered in some cases. This algorithm is applied to four different test systems. Simulation results are compared with many recently developed optimization techniques to show the superiority and consistency of this method. Simulation results also show that the computational efficiency of this algorithm is much better than the other meta-heuristic methods available in the literature.