An External Archive-Based Constrained State Transition Algorithm for Optimal Power Dispatch

This paper proposes an external archive-based constrained state transition algorithm (EA-CSTA) with a preference trade-off strategy for solving the power dispatch optimization problem in the electrochemical process of zinc (EPZ). The optimal power dispatch problem aims to obtain the optimal current density schedule to minimize the cost of power consumption with some rigorous technology and production constraints. The current density of each production equipment in different power stages is restricted by technology and production requirements. In addition, electricity price and current density are considered comprehensively to influence the cost of power consumption. In the process of optimization, technology and production restrictions are difficult to be satisfied, which are modeled as nonconvex equality constraints in the power dispatch optimization problem. Moreover, multiple production equipment and different power supply stages increase the amount of decision variables. In order to solve this problem, an external archive-based constrained state transition algorithm (EA-CSTA) is proposed. The external archive strategy is adopted for maintaining the diversity of solutions to increase the probability of finding the optima of power dispatch optimization problem. Moreover, a preference trade-off strategy is designed to improve the global search performance of EA-CSTA, and the translation transformation in state transition algorithm is modified to improve the local search ability of EA-CSTA. Finally, the experimental results indicate that the proposed method is more efficient compared with other approaches in previous papers for the optimal power dispatch. Furthermore, the proposed method significantly reduces the cost of power consumption, which not only guides the production process of zinc electrolysis but also alleviates the pressure of the power grid load.