Dispatching a 19-Unit Indian Utility System Using a Refined Differential Evolution Algorithm

This paper presents a differential evolution with neighborhood based mutation (DE-NM) technique to solve Dynamic Economic Dispatch (DED) problem with valve point effects and multiple fuel options. A new mutation scheme based on neighborhood topology is presented with an aim to achieve the cost reduction together satisfying the dynamic behavior of the generating units over the considered time period. The neighborhood based mutation (NM) balances the exploration and exploitation of the search effort of differential evolution (DE) technique. The NM method enhances the convergence speed and the performance of the DE technique. The performance of the DE-NM is tested on a 10-unit and a real public Indian utility system with 19 generating units. Both the test systems are illustrated under different load patterns. The dispatch results obtained using the proposed method for the Indian system have considerably reduced the operating cost and optimized its operation.