Implementation of different optimization techniques to solve ELD problem

Optimization is a mathematical technique that concerns the finding of maxima or minima of functions in some feasible region. There is no business or industry which is not involved in solving optimization problems. A variety of optimization techniques compete for the best solution. Economic load dispatch (ELD) problem is a common task in the operational planning of a power system, to schedule the connected generating units of plant outputs so as to fulfill demands at minimum operating cost while satisfying all operational constraints. In this paper different optimization technique like simulated annealing, genetic algorithm, pattern search, fmincon, minimax optimization, hybrid genetic algorithm & particle swarm optimization have been successfully applied on IEEE-30 bus (6 machines) system to solve the ELD problem for the standard demand of 283.40 MW. All above algorithms have been compared for ten trial runs. The best, worst, average fitness and their standard deviation for all the algorithms have been determined. The results show that PSO techniques give the optimum operating cost.