Optimal operation of cascade reservoirs based on generalized ant colony optimization method

An optimization algorithm is proposed by means of integrating the generalized ant colony optimization (GACO) with progressive optimal algorithm (POA), and is applied to the optimal operation of cascade reservoirs. This integrated algorithm possesses large scale search capability of generalized ant colony algorithm and better local search capability of progressive optimal algorithm at the same time. Therefore, under the condition of ensuring global convergence, high quality optimization solution can be searched quickly by the proposed algorithm. In order to increase the rapidity of convergence, initial ant colony is generated stochastically in an automatic way constrained by water mass balance equation. And a penalty function is utilized to handle the boundary conditions and other non-equality constraints. A case study is given to show the effectivity and practicability of the algorithm.