Grey Wolf Optimizer for solving economic dispatch problems

This work proposes a new meta-heuristic called Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO) which inspired by grey wolves (Canis lupus). The GWO algorithm mimics the leadership hierarchy and hunting mechanism of grey wolves in nature. Four types of grey wolves such as alpha, beta, delta, and omega are employed for simulating the leadership hierarchy. In addition, the three main steps of hunting, searching for prey, encircling prey, and attacking prey, are implemented. The algorithm is then benchmarked on 20 generating units in economic dispatch, and the results are verified by a comparative study with Biogeography-based optimization (BBO), Lambda Iteration method (LI), Hopfield model based approach (HM), Cuckoo Search (CS), Firefly, Artificial Bee Colony (ABC), Neural Networks training by Artificial Bee Colony (ABCNN), Quadratic Programming (QP) and General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS). The results show that the GWO algorithm is able to provide very competitive results compared to these well-known meta-heuristics.