Improved Dynamic Harmony Search Optimization for Economic Dispatch Problems with Higher Order Cost Functions

This paper presents a modified harmony search algorithm with dynamically varying bandwidth, named improved dynamic harmony search algorithm (IDHSA) for economic load dispatch (ELD) problems with higher cost functions. The economic load dispatch problem aims to schedule power outputs of the generating units to meet the system load demand at minimum cost while satisfying the equality and inequality constraints. In the IDHS algorithm, the key difference from the conventional HS algorithm is that bandwidth (BW) operator changes dynamically at every iteration. The IDHS algorithm is tested with two different cases of power systems without and with transmission losses. The obtained results prove the accuracy and the effectiveness of the IDHS algorithm in determining the best solution compared than other optimization methods recently published in the literature.