Improved Particle Swarm Optimization Technique for Economic Dispatch with Prohibited Operating Zones

This paper presents a new approach for solving the economic dispatch (ED) problems using an improved particle swarm optimization (IPSO) technique. The highly non-linear cost function due to ramp rate limits and prohibited operating zones are considered in the proposed method. In this paper, an improved particle swarm optimization (IPSO) mechanism is proposed to deal with the equality and inequality constraints in the ED problems through the application of Gaussian and Cauchy probability distributions. The IPSO approach introduces new diversification and intensification strategy into the particles thus preventing PSO algorithm from premature convergence. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, the numerical studies have been performed for 6 unit test system. The results shows that performance of the proposed approach reveal the efficiently and robustness when compared results of other optimization algorithms reported in literature.