A hybrid method of differential evolution and SQP for solving the economic dispatch problem with valve-point effect

Abstract

The differential evolution (DE) is an improved version of evolution strategies and Nelder-Mead simplex methods. DE has been successfully applied in various fields, such as optimization nonlinear functions, multi sensor fusion, control system, and system identification. The potentialities of DE are its simple structure, easy use, convergency speed and robustness. This paper proposes a new hybrid methodology for solving the economic load dispatch problem with valve-point effect. The proposed hybrid method combinates the DE and sequential quadratic programming (SQP) technique. The DE is used to produce good potential solutions, and the SQP is used to fine-tune the DE run. The hybrid methodology and its variants are validated for a test system consisting of 40 thermal units whose incremental fuel cost function takes into account the valve-point loading effects. The proposed hybrid method outperforms other state-of-the-art algorithms in solving load dispatch problems with the valve-point effect.