Economic load dispatch including wind power using plant growth simulation algorithm

The economic load dispatch (ELD) to meet the system load demand in an optimal manner is discussed in this paper by considering wind power in power system. The generation scheduling for overall system comprising coal based units and wind farm is derived by solving an objective function using plant growth simulation algorithm (PGSA). Uncertain nature of wind power is included in study by using weibull probability distribution function. The errors in wind forecasting are taken in to account by adding costs such as overestimation cost and under estimation cost. The economic load dispatch problem solved for three test cases considers different constraints like valve point loading effect, ramp rates, power loss and prohibited zones. The results obtained without wind are compared with those presented in previous literature to validate feasibility of PGSA. It is shown that PGSA provides better results for fuel cost compared to Genetic Algorithm (GA), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Biogeography-based optimization (BBO) and Variable Scaling Hybrid Differential Evolution (VSHDE).