The application of equilibrium optimizer for solving modern economic load dispatch problem considering renewable energies and multiple-fuel thermal units

This study presents a modern version of the economic load dispatch (MELD) problem with the contribution of renewable energies and conventional energy, including wind, solar and thermal power plants. In the study, reduction of electricity generation cost is the first priority, while the use of multiple fuels in the thermal power plant is considered in addition to the consideration of all constraints of power plants. Two meta-heuristic algorithms, one conventional and one recently published, including Particle swarm optimization (PSO) and Equilibrium optimizer (EO), are applied to determine the optimal solutions for MELD. A power system with ten thermal power plants using multiple fossil fuels, one wind power plant, and three solar power plants is utilized to evaluate the performance of both PSO and EO. Unlike other previous studies, this paper considers the MELD problem with the change of load demands over one day with 24 periods as a real power system. In addition, the power generated by both wind and solar power plants varies at each period. The results obtained by applying the two algorithms indicate that EO is completely superior to PSO, and the solutions found by EO can satisfy all constraints. Particularly in Case 1 with different load demand values, EO achieves better total electricity production cost (TEGC) than PSO by 0.75%, 0.87%, 0.13%, and 0.45% for the loads of 2400 MW, 2500 MW, 2600 MW and 2700 MW. Moreover, EO also provides a faster response capability over PSO through the four subcases although EO and PSO are run by the same selection of control parameters. In Case 2, the high efficiency provided by EO is still maintained, though the scale of the considered problem has been substantially enlarged. Specifically, EO can save $51.2 compared to PSO for the minimum TEGC. The savings cost is equal to 0.33% for the whole schedule of 24 hours. With these results, EO is acknowledged as a favourable search method for dealing with the MELD problem. Besides, this study also points out the difference in performance between a modern meta-heuristic algorithm (EO) and the classical one (PSO). The modern metaheuristic algorithm with special structure is highly valuable for complicated problem as MELD.