A penalty based self adaptive harmony search algorithm for optimal load shedding

Abstract

In this paper, a novel method is introduced to avoid the blackout of a power system when there is a loss of generation. A new load shed scheme is introduced with the priority based choice to decide the amount of load to be shed at each bus in the system. The priorities are assigned based on the voltage drop after the generation loss. The priority assigned, an improved self adaptive harmony search algorithm (ISAHS) is triggered to determine the optimal amounts of the load to be shed. The MATPOWER solver is used to solve the power flow equation. The simulations are conducted and the performance of the proposed method is analyzed on IEEE-14. In IEEE-14 bus system total active and reactive power shedding is 193.47MW and 51.89MVAR respectively which are less than the existing methods. The amount of load shedding obtained using proposed method gives better results compared to the existing. The range of bus voltage swing achieved in IEEE-14 is 1.01pu to 1.062pu. The active and reactive power supplied before and after the generation loss, is computed for each case. The losses incurred in the bus system are also computed. The improvement in the bus voltages is presented after designing the new load using ISAHS. The results obtained with proposed method are compared with the three existing methods. Convergence characteristics also show the efficiency of the proposed method.