Application of Pattern Search Method to Power System Economic Load Dispatch

Direct Search (DS) methods are evolutionary algorithms used to solve constrained optimization problems. DS methods do not require information about the gradient of the objective function while searching for an optimum solution. One of such methods is Pattern Search (PS) algorithm. This study examines the usefulness of a constrained pattern search algorithm to solve well-known power system Economic Load Dispatch problem (ELD) with a valve-point effect. For illustrative purposes, the proposed PS technique has been applied to various test systems to validate its effectiveness. Furthermore, convergence characteristics and robustness of the proposed method have been assessed and investigated through comparison with results reported in literature. The outcome is very encouraging and suggests that pattern search (PS) may be very useful in solving power system economic load dispatch problems.