Economic Load Dispatch of Higher Order Cost Polynomials Using Modified Particle Swarm Optimization

This paper presents a modified particle swarm optimization (MPSO) for economic load dispatch (ELD) problem. Considering multifuel operations, valve-point effects, accurate curve fitting, etc., real cost function is more complex than a conventional second order cost function in the deregulated changing market. Modified PSO consists of problem dependent variable number of promising values (in velocity vector), unit vector, error-iteration dependent step length, etc. It reliably and accurately tracks a continuously changing solution of the complex cost function and no extra concentration/effort is needed for more complex higher order cost polynomial in ELD. Constraint management is incorporated in the modified PSO. The modified PSO has balance between local and global searching abilities, and an appropriate fitness function helps to converge it quickly. To avoid the method to be frozen, stagnated/idle particles are reset. In this paper, sensitivity of higher order cost polynomial is also analyzed visually to realize the importance of higher order cost polynomial in ELD. Finally, benchmark data and methods are used to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.