International Journal of Engineering and Technology

Economic load dispatch (ELD) is the main optimization task in power system operation. Minimizing the fuel cost by optimally setting the real power outputs from generators is the objective of ELD problem. In this work, ELD problem is addressed by considering three different cost functions. Real power generations are adjusted for minimizing the fuel cost by using flower pollination algorithm (FOA). This algorithm works on the basis of pollinating behavior of flowering plants. Unlike the other nature inspired algorithms, it follows only the levy flight mechanism for generating the population for the next generation. Being free from large number of parameters, the algorithm works well and there is no much difficulty in tuning to suit for different problems. The algorithm can be coded easily in any programming language. The proposed algorithm is tested on the standard IEEE-30 bus system and the results are compared with those of the other algorithms reported in the literature. The results are found to be improved and encouraging.