A solution procedure to the economic load dispatch problem through the gravitational search technique

Abstract

The central goal of the Economic Load Dispatch (ELD) is to establish the power by all committed generating units so that generating cost is minimized as the load demand and inequality constraints are satisfied. This paper presents a new stochastic optimization algorithm inspired by the law of gravity and interaction between masses to solve ELD problems, called Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA). This proposed algorithm has been tested on some standard power systems including IEEE 6-bus 3 generator, IEEE 14-bus 5 generator, IEEE 30-bus 6 generator systems using different non-linear effect like valve point loading, ramp rate limits, prohibited zones etc. This result has been compared by many well-known heuristic search methods. This result provides the efficiency, robustness, fast convergence and proficiency of the proposed algorithm with less computational time over other existing algorithm.

Keywords: Economic Load Dispatch, Gravitational Search Algorithm, Prohibited operating zone, Ramp rate limit, Valve point loading effect