Contents:

Economic Dispatch definition. Basic Methods of Economic Dispatch.

Economic Dispatch problem formulation. Particle Swarm Optimization. Particle Swarm Algorithm and its application to Economic Dispatch.

Test Systems. Simulation Results. Conclusion.

Further presentation. References.

Economic Dispatch:
The determination of the most optimal sharing of the load between the given generators. The main objective of the Economic Dispatch problem is to minimize the total cost of generation while considering all the units to be ON.

Basic methods of Economic Dispatch:

The Basic concept involved in Economic Dispatch problem is that the incremental costs of all the generators should be equal for a given load.

The basic methods are:

Lambda iteration method or Lagrange Relaxation method. Gradient method. Newtons double gradient method.

Economic Dispatch problem formulation:

Aim: To minimize the total cost of generation.

Subject to the constraints:

Power balance constraint:

Power generation limit constraint:

Lagrange Relaxation method:

Lagrange function:
Solution:
Step 1:

This results in the following relation with (N-1) equations:

Step 2: The Nth equation will be the power balance constraint equation: Step 3: Solve the N equations to get the optimal solution.

Example problem:
Consider 3 generators with the following cost functions:

Solution:

Load Demand is 850 MW.

Step 1: Equate the incremental costs of the generators.

Step 2:

Step 3: Solve the equations obtained, the solution will be:

Advantages and drawbacks of these methods:

The main advantage of these methods are that they are accurate, fast and easy to implement for the typical cost function characteristic (quadratic cost function) of the generator. The main drawback of these methods is that they become very difficult when the cost function curve deviates from quadratic nature which occurs more often practically.

Types of fuel cost functions used:

1). Quadratic fuel cost function:
2). Cubic fuel cost function: 3). Fuel cost function with valve point loading:

Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO):

Proposed by James F. Kennedy and Russell .C Eberhart in March 1995 [5].

The algorithm imitates a swarm of birds searching for food.

Similarly while performing an optimization problem (For example: Economic Dispatch), a set of potential solutions called particles are initialized in the problem space and these particles search for the optimal solution.

Rules for choosing Particles:

The independent variables are taken as the dimensions of the particle. The dependent variables are to be estimated from independent variables.

What is a particle?
A particle is a possible solution for a given optimization problem that exists in the given problem space.

Problem space is the space in which all the constraints involved in the problem are satisfied by the independent variables and the dependent variables.

Particle velocity:
Particle velocity is the rate of change of position of a given particle. Using particle velocity, we can update the positions of the particles and find new possible solutions (ultimately the best or optimal solution).

Without particle velocity, we cant find new possible solutions.

The Particle swarm algorithm:

Step 1: Initialize different particles in the given problem space (The coordinates of each particle are the output powers of the generators in case of Economic Dispatch Problem). Step 2: Evaluate the objective function (In case of Economic Dispatch Problem, the total cost of generation) at each and every particle.
Step 3: Initialize every particles best value as their current position and the global best position as the overall best (overall least cost) among all the particles.

Step 1 and Step 2

Step 3

Step 4: If it is the first iteration, then initialize the velocities of the particles, otherwise update the velocity of the particle using the velocity update equation.
Step 5: Update the position of the particle using the position update equation.

Step 6: Go to step 2. After repeating step 2, check if the particles position is better than its previous position. If it is better than its previous position, then update its best value to the current position. Stopping criteria: The maximum number of iterations, initialized before simulation.

Step 4 and Step 5

Step 6 and Step 2

Step 3

Example problem:
Consider 3 generators with the following cost functions:

Solution:

Load Demand is 850 MW.

Step 1: Take P1,P2 and P3 as the dimensions of the particle. Consider P3 as the slack generator if its limits are not violated. Otherwise either P1 or P2 will be the slack generator (in order to satisfy the power balance constraint). Step 2: Initialize various particles in the problem space and assign initial velocities to all the particles.

Step 3: The Objective function is the total cost of generation and hence implement the PSO algorithm.

Path of the particles:

Optimal solution of Generator output powers

Position updates of the particles:

Iter 2
Iter 4 Iter 3

Iter 1
Initial position

Gbest updates of the population:

Optimal solution of Generator output powers

Gbest 3 Gbest 2 Initial Gbest

Gbest 1

Advantages of Particle Swarm Optimization:

1. It is the latest, the most robust and the most efficient search algorithm, among all the optimization techniques like Genetic algorithm, linear programming, dynamic programming, etc. 2. It is easier to implement and can obtain better optimal solutions for many optimization problems in Electrical Engineering.

Application of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to Economic Dispatch problem:

Aim: To minimize the total cost of generation.

Subject to the constraints: Power balance constraint:

Power generation limit constraint: Particle: All the generators sharing the load are the members or dimensions of the particle. Particle members
P1, P2, P3,,PN

Velocity update equation:

Position update equation: Where,

i= 1,2,.np, j=1,2,.N

pbestij The current best position of the particle i and generator j. gbestj The current global best position of the generator j. w Inertia weight factor. iter - Current iteration. np Number of particles. N Number of generators in the given system. c1, c2 Acceleration constants. rand1, rand2 Random numbers generated between 0 and 1.

Inertia Weight (w):

The concept of inertia was proposed by Russel C. Eberhart and Y. Shi in 2000 [6].

The inertia weight can be either implemented as a fixed value or can be dynamically changing.
Essentially, this parameter controls the exploration of the search space, therefore an initially higher value allows the particles to move freely in order to find the global optimum neighborhood fast.

Once the optimal region is found, the value of the inertia weight can be decreased in order to narrow the search, shifting from an exploratory mode to an exploitative mode. Commonly, a linearly decreasing inertia weight has produced good results in many applications.

Inertia weight (w):

The formula for inertia weight is given by:

Where, wmax Initial inertia weight. wmin Final inertia weight. iter Current iteration. itermax Maximum number of iterations.

With Inertia Weight:

Iter 2
Iter 4 Iter 3

Iter 1
Initial position

The solution converged at iteration 84. The solution obtained is:

Without Inertia Weight:

The solution converged at iteration 158. The solution obtained is:

Flow Chart for Economic Dispatch problem using PSO:

Start Initialize a population of particles containing the power outputs of all the generators

Initialize parameters such as the size of population, initial/final inertia weights, particle velocity and acceleration constants.
Evaluate the cost function at each and every particles current position.

Compare each individuals evaluation value with its previous best value (pbest). If it is better than its previous position, update pbest. Evaluate gbest, the best among the pbests of all the particles.
Update the velocities and positions of all the particles using the velocity and position update equations. The stopping criteria is the total number of iterations initialized before simulation. Stopping criteria satisfied?

No

Yes
Stop

1). Quadratic fuel cost function:

System 1:
S.No 1. Pmin (MW) 150 Pmax (MW) 600 ai 561 bi 7.92 ci 0.001562

2.
3.

100
50

400
200

310
78

7.85
7.97

0.001940
0.004820

Total load demand = 850 MW

System 2:
S.No 1. 2. 3. Pmin (MW) Pmax (MW) 150 100 50 600 400 200 ai 459 310 78 bi 6.48 7.85 7.97 ci 0.00128 0.00194 0.00482

Total load demand = 850 MW

2). Cubic fuel cost function:

System 1:
S.No 1. Pmin (MW) 320

Pmax (MW)
800

ai 749.55

bi 6.95

ci 9.68 X 10-4

di 1.27 X 10-7

2.
3.

300
275

1200
1100

1285
1531

7.051
6.531

7.38 X 10-4
1.04 X 10-3

6.453 X 10-8
9.98 X 10-8

Total load demand = 2500 MW

3). Fuel cost function with valve point loading:

System 1:

S.No 1.
2.

Pmin (MW) Pmax (MW) 100

100

ai 561
310

bi 7.92
7.85

ci 0.001562
0.001940

ei 300
200

fi 0.0315
0.0420

600
400

3.

50

200

78

7.97

0.004820

150

0.0630

Total load demand = 850 MW

System 2:
S.No 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. Pmin (MW) 36 36 60 80 47 68 110 135 135 130 94 94 125 125 125 125 220 220 242 242 254 254 254 254 254 254 10 10 10 47 60 60 60 90 90 90 25 25 25 242 Pmax (MW) 114 114 120 190 97 140 300 300 300 300 375 375 500 500 500 500 500 500 550 550 550 550 550 550 550 550 150 150 150 97 190 190 190 200 200 200 110 110 110 550 ai 94.705 94.705 309.54 369.03 148.89 222.33 287.71 391.98 455.76 722.82 635.20 654.69 913.40 1760.4 1728.3 1728.3 647.85 649.69 647.83 647.81 785.96 785.96 794.53 794.53 801.32 801.32 1055.1 1055.1 1055.1 148.89 222.92 222.92 222.92 107.87 116.58 116.58 307.45 307.45 307.45 647.83 bi 6.73 6.73 7.07 8.18 5.35 8.05 8.03 6.99 6.60 12.9 12.9 12.8 12.5 8.84 9.15 9.15 7.97 7.95 7.97 7.97 6.63 6.63 6.66 6.66 7.10 7.10 3.33 3.33 3.33 5.35 6.43 6.43 6.43 8.95 8.62 8.62 5.88 5.88 5.88 7.97 ci 0.00690 0.00690 0.02028 0.00942 0.01140 0.01142 0.00357 0.00492 0.00573 0.00605 0.00515 0.00569 0.00421 0.00752 0.00708 0.00708 0.00313 0.00313 0.00313 0.00313 0.00298 0.00298 0.00284 0.00284 0.00277 0.00277 0.52124 0.52124 0.52124 0.01140 0.00160 0.00160 0.00160 0.0001 0.0001 0.0001 0.0161 0.0161 0.0161 0.00313 ei 100 100 100 150 120 100 200 200 200 200 200 200 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 300 120 120 120 120 150 150 150 200 200 200 80 80 80 300 fi 0.084 0.084 0.084 0.063 0.077 0.084 0.042 0.042 0.042 0.042 0.042 0.042 0.035 0.035 0.035 0.035 0.035 0.035 0.035 0.035 0.035 0.035 0.035 0.035 0.035 0.035 0.077 0.077 0.077 0.077 0.063 0.063 0.063 0.042 0.042 0.042 0.098 0.098 0.098 0.035

Total load demand = 10500 MW

System 3:
S.No

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

Pmin (MW) 0 0 0 60 60 60 60 60 60 40 40 55 55

Pmax (MW) 680 360 360 180 180 180 180 180 180 120 120 120 120

ai

bi

ci

ei

fi

550 309 307 240 240 240 240 240 240 126 126 126 126

8.1 8.1 8.1 7.74 7.74 7.74 7.74 7.74 7.74 8.6 8.6 8.6 8.6

0.00028 0.00056 0.00056 0.00324 0.00324 0.00324 0.00324 0.00324 0.00324 0.00284 0.00284 0.00284 0.00284

300 200 200 150 150 150 150 150 150 100 100 100 100

0.035 0.042 0.042 0.063 0.063 0.063 0.063 0.063 0.063 0.084 0.084 0.084 0.084

Total load demand = 1800 MW

1). Quadratic fuel cost function:

System 1:
Unit Pmin (MW) Pmax (MW)
1 150 600 2 100 400 3 50 200 Total Generation & Total Cost
Generator Reference results

Generation (MW) 393.169842 334.603750 122.226408 850.000000

Cost ($/hour) 3916.464844 3153.867432 1124.023682 8194.355469

Simulation results Generation

Lambda iteration method [8]

Generation Cost ($/hour) 3916.6389 3153.8069 1123.9103 8194.3561

Modified PSO method [1]

Generation Cost

(MW)
1 393.2 334.6 122.2 850.0

(MW)
393.170 334.604 122.226 850.000

($/hour)
3916.3645 3153.8435 1124.1481 8194.3561

(MW)
393.169842 334.603750 122.226408 850.000000

Cost ($/hour) 3916.464844 3153.867432 1124.023682 8194.355469

2
3 Total

System 2:
Unit Pmin (MW) Pmax (MW)

1 150 600 2 100 400 3 50 200 Total Generation & Total Cost

Generation (MW) 600 187.130170 62.869830 850.000000

Cost ($/hour) 4807.8 1846.906174 598.124152 7252.830326

Generator

Lambda iteration method [8]

Generation (MW)

Simulation results
Generation (MW)

Cost ($/hour) 4807.799805

1846.647435 598.382896

Cost ($/hour) 4807.799805

1846.984009 598.046021

1
2 3

600.0
187.1 62.9

600.000000
187.139252 62.860718

Total

850.0

7252.830136

850.000000

7252.829590

2). Cubic fuel cost function:

System 1:
Unit 1 Pmin (MW) 320 Pmax (MW) 800 Generation (MW) 725.142479 Cost ($/hour) 6346.720693

2 3

300 275

1200 1100

909.856153 865.001368
2500.000000

8359.945220 8023.072721
22729.738635

Total Generation & Total Cost

Generator Lambda Iteration method [8]
Generation (MW)

Simulation results Cost ($/hour)

6346.720693

Cost ($/hour) Generation (MW) 6361.7858

8825.8381 725.142479

1
2

726.9
912.7

909.856153
865.001368 2500.000000

8359.945220
8023.072721 22729.738635

3
Total

860.4
2500.0

7862.9324
23050.5563

3). Fuel cost function with valve point loading:

System 1:
Unit 1
2 3

Pmin (MW) 150

100 50

Pmax (MW) 600

400 200

Generation (MW) 300.266900

400.000000 149.733100 850

Cost ($/hour) 3087.509906

3767.124609 1379.437214 8234.071729

Total Generation & Total Cost

System 2:

Unit 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40

Pmin (MW) Pmax (MW) 36 114 36 114 60 120 80 190 47 97 68 140 110 300 135 300 135 300 130 300 94 375 94 375 125 500 125 500 125 500 125 500 220 500 220 500 242 550 242 550 254 550 254 550 254 550 254 550 254 550 254 550 10 150 10 150 10 150 47 97 60 190 60 190 60 190 90 200 90 200 90 200 25 110 25 110 25 110 242 550 Total Generation & Total Cost

Generation (MW) 110.873094 111.206585 97.400045 179.733103 87.925632 140.000000 259.602353 284.599877 284.600405 130.000000 168.799904 94.000000 214.759790 304.519592 394.279370 394.279370 489.279396 489.279496 511.279486 511.279396 523.279393 523.279593 523.279490 523.279389 523.279390 523.279386 10.000000 10.000000 10.000000 89.062397 190.000000 190.000000 190.000000 200.000000 172.284687 200.000000 110.000000 110.000000 110.000000 511.279380 10500.000000

Cost ($/hour) 926.316990 931.873081 1190.551107 2143.550384 708.586285 1596.464320 2612.933970 2779.840728 2798.244060 2502.065000 2959.460472 1908.166840 3792.070018 5149.699318 6436.586289 6436.586289 5296.711310 5288.767855 5540.931726 5540.909788 5071.290149 5071.294204 5057.225500 5057.223473 5275.088941 5275.088854 1140.524000 1140.524000 1140.524000 727.4469524 1643.991252 1643.991252 1643.991252 2101.017035 1666.484581 2043.727035 1220.166122 1220.166122 1220.166122 5540.929436 121441.1761

System 3:
Unit Pmin (MW) Pmax (MW) 1 0 680 2 0 360 3 0 360 4 60 180 5 60 180 6 60 180 7 60 180 8 60 180 9 60 180 10 40 120 11 40 120 12 55 120 13 55 120 Total Generation & Total Cost Generation (MW) 628.318531 224.399475 297.548894 159.733100 60.000000 60.000000 60.000000 60.000000 60.000000 40.000000 40.000000 55.000000 55.000000 1800.000000 Cost ($/hour) 5749.919673 2154.834619 2780.578148 1559.001704 716.064 716.064 716.064 716.064 716.064 474.544 474.544 607.591 607.591 17988.92414

Comparison of simulation results:

Fuel cost function with valve point loading:
System 1:
Unit 1. 2. GA [3] 300.00 400.00 EP [4] 300.26 400.00 MPSO [1] 300.27 400.00

Simulation Results
300.267 400.000

3. Total Power Generation (MW) Total Cost of Generation ($/Hour)

150.00 850.00
8237.60

149.74 850.00
8234.07

149.73 850.00
8234.07

149.733 850.00
8234.07

System 2:
Method

Total Cost of Generation ($/Hour) 122624.35

122252.265 121441.1761 Total Cost of Generation ($/Hour)

IFEP [2]
MPSO [1] Simulation Result

System 3:
Method

IFEP [2]
PPSO [8]

17994.07
17971.01

Simulation Result

17988.92

PPSO Personal best Oriented PSO. It is an improved form of PSO for which the position update equation will be updated with respect to pbest.

Conclusions:
1) The Particle Swarm algorithm is a robust algorithm in solving optimization problems like Economic Dispatch. 2) It is capable of producing more optimal solutions when compared to Genetic Algorithm (GA), ANN, Dynamic Programming, etc. 3) It is easier to implement in optimization problems when compared to other artificial intelligence techniques.

Further Presentation:
Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm has been successfully implemented for Economic Dispatch problem, but the disadvantages of Economic Dispatch problem can be overcome with Unit Commitment problem.
The Economic Dispatch algorithm can be implemented as a useful function while solving Unit Commitment problem after the decision for the ON/OFF status of all the units have been done.

References:
[1]. Jong-Bae Park, Ki-Song Lee, Joong-Rin Shin, Kwang Y. Lee, A Particle Swarm Optimization for Economic Dispatch with Nonsmooth Cost Functions., IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp 34 42, February 2005.

[2]. N. Sinha, R. Chakrabarti, and P. K. Chattopadhyay, Evolutionary programming techniques for economic load dispatch., IEEE Trans. Evol. Comput., vol. 7, pp. 8394, Feb. 2003. [3]. D. C. Walters and G. B. Sheble, Genetic algorithm solution of economic dispatch with the valve point loading, IEEE Trans. Power Systems, vol. 8, pp. 13251332, Aug. 1993. [4]. H. T. Yang, P. C. Yang, and C. L. Huang, Evolutionary programming based economic dispatch for units with nonsmooth fuel cost functions., IEEE Trans. Power Syst., vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 112118, Feb. 1996.

[5]. Yamille del Valle, Ganesh Kumar Venayagamoorthy, Salman Mohagheghi, Jean Carlos Hernandez and Ronald G. Harley, Particle Swarm Optimization: Basic Concepts, Variants and Applications in Power Systems., IEEE Transactions on Evolutionary Computation, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp 171 195, April 2008. [6]. J. Kennedy and R. Eberhart, Particle swarm optimization., in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Neural Networks. (ICNN), Nov. 1995, vol. 4, pp. 19421948.

[7]. R. Eberhart and Y. Shi, Comparing inertia weights and constriction factors in particle swarm optimization., in Proc. IEEE Congress Evol. Comput, Jul. 2000, vol. 1, pp. 8488. [8]. C. H. Chen and S. N. Yeh, Particle Swarm Optimization for Economic Power Dispatch with Valve-Point Effects., 2006 IEEE PES Transmission and Distribution Conference and Exposition Latin America, Venezuela. [9]. A. J. Wood and B. F. Wollenberg, Power Generation, Operation, and Control., New York: Wiley, 1984.

Acknowledgements:
Koneru Lakshmaiah College of Engg. Prof J.Pal. IIT Kharagpur.