Optimal active-reactive power dispatch using an enhanced differential evolution algorithm

This paper presents an enhanced differential evolution (EDE) algorithm to alternatively solve the optimal active-reactive power dispatch (ARPD) problem. Theoretically, there has a coupling relation between active and reactive power dispatches. However, due to a high X/R ratio existing in the transmission line, the problem of ARPD can then be decomposed into two individual sub-problems by the decoupling concept, i.e., active and reactive power dispatch problems. In this paper, a differential evolution algorithm enhanced by combining variable scaling mutation and ant algorithm was proposed to alternatively solve the ARPD problem in a single simulation run. Due to the superiority in optimization, the EDE method is very adequate to deal with the ARPD problem. The proposed approach has been verified on the IEEE 30-bus 6-generator system. Testing results indicate the proposed EDE was superior to the existing methods in terms of active power loss, operating cost, and convergence time.