A Memetic Backtracking Search Optimization Algorithm for Economic Dispatch Problem

Economic load dispatch (ELD) is a non-linear optimization problem for determining the power shared among the generating units to satisfy the generation limit constraints of each unit and minimizing the cost of power production. In this paper, we present a new hybrid algorithm by combing the standard backtracking search optimization algorithm (BSA) and the random wake with direction exploitation algorithm (RWDE). The proposed algorithm is called a memetic backtracking search optimization algorithm (MBSOA). Invoking the RWDE algorithm as a local search algorithm in the standard BSA can accelerate the convergence and refine the best obtain solution at each iteration in the proposed algorithm. The general performance of the proposed MBSOA is tested on a six-generator test system for a total demand of 700MW and 800MW and compared against three natural inspired algorithms. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is a promising algorithm to solve economic load dispatch problem. Keyboard: Backtracking search optimization, Random walk algorithm, Economic dispatch problem, Optimization problems.