The Open Electrical & Electronic Engineering Journal

2017, 11 : 177-192
Published online 2017 October 31. DOI: 10.2174/1874129001711010177
Publisher ID: TOEEJ-11-177

RESEARCH ARTICLE
Optimal Power Flow Using an Improved Hybrid Differential Evolution Algorithm

Gonggui Chen1,2, * , Zhengmei Lu1,2 , Zhizhong Zhang3 and Zhi Sun4

* Address correspondence to this author at the Research Center on Complex Power System Analysis and Control, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongqing 400065, P.R. China; Tel: +86-15696106539; Fax: +86-23-62461535; E-mails: , chenggpower@163.com

ABSTRACT

Objective:

In this paper, an improved hybrid differential evolution (IHDE) algorithm based on differential evolution (DE) algorithm and particle swarm optimization (PSO) has been proposed to solve the optimal power flow (OPF) problem of power system which is a multi-constrained, large-scale and nonlinear optimization problem.

Method:

In IHDE algorithm, the DE is employed as the main optimizer; and the three factors of PSO, which are inertia, cognition, and society, are used to improve the mutation of DE. Then the learning mechanism and the adaptive control of the parameters are added to the crossover, and the greedy selection considering the value of penalty function is proposed. Furthermore, the replacement mechanism is added to the IHDE for reducing the probability of falling into the local optimum. The performance of this method is tested on the IEEE30-bus and IEEE57-bus systems, and the generator quadratic cost and the transmission real power losses are considered as objective functions.

Results:

The simulation results demonstrate that IHDE algorithm can solve the OPF problem successfully and obtain the better solution compared with other methods reported in the recent literatures.

Keywords:

Power system, Optimal power flow, Improved hybrid differential evolution algorithm, Particle swarm optimization, Learning mechanism, Replacement mechanism.