Economic dispatch using metaheuristics: Algorithms, problems, and solutions

Economic dispatch (ED) has received considerable interest in the field of energy management and optimization. The problem aims to determine the most cost-effective power allocation strategy that satisfies the power demand and all physical constraints of the power system. To solve this problem, we propose an algorithm based on differential evolution and adopt a hybrid mutation strategy, a linear population size reduction mechanism, and an improved single-unit repair mechanism. Experimental results confirmed that these mechanisms are useful for performance improvement. The proposed algorithm (L-HMDE) showed good performance when compared with more than 90 algorithms in solving 22 test cases. It could provide high-quality solutions stably and efficiently. In addition to designing a good algorithm, we present a review of over 100 papers and highlight their algorithm features. We also provide a comprehensive collection of test cases in the literature. Through careful examination and verification, data coefficients of these test cases and solutions to them are included in this paper as a useful reference for researchers who are interested in this problem.