Biogeography Based Optimization Approach for Solving Optimal Power Flow Problem

This paper presents the use of a novel evolutionary algorithm called Biogeography-based optimization (BBO) for the solution of the optimal power flow problem. The objective is to minimize the total fuel cost of generation and environmental pollution caused by fossil based thermal generating units and also maintain an acceptable system performance in terms of limits on generator real and reactive power outputs, bus voltages, shunt capacitors/reactors and power flow of transmission lines. BBO searches for the global optimum mainly through two steps: Migration and Mutation. In the present work, BBO has been applied to solve the optimal power flow problems on IEEE 30-bus test system with six generating units to test the effectiveness of the proposed method. Satisfactory results obtained from the proposed method were compared to conventional and evolutionary optimization methods.