CHAPTER 1 Introduction

1.1 General Optimization forms an important place in the day to day life. Most of the peoples unknowingly apply the optimization procedures in their common daily tasks. Optimization has vital and dominant role in the field of engineering and sciences. The electrical power systems the most critical infrastructure has the status of oxygen for the survival and development of present day world. Economic indicators of the country have direct relations with energy consumption per capita per annum. The secure, reliable, and continuous operation of the power system without interruption subject to quality indicators such as voltage and frequency is the challenging task for the system operation engineer. Power systems operation combines a highly non-linear and computationally difficult environment with a need for optimality. The economic operation and planning of power system are ranked high amongst the major tasks in the power generation. Power economic dispatch (ED) is necessary and vital step in power system operational planning and has always occupied an important position in the electric power industry. This is nonlinear constrained optimization problem and has been solved by various optimization techniques. Genetic algorithm is the one of the most developed and important paradigm of the evolutionary computation. This thesis investigates the application of the genetic algorithm (GA) independently and in hybrid form for the solution of economic dispatch problem.

1.2

Problem Statement Economic dispatch, by definition is an on-line function, carried out after every 15-

30 minutes or on request in Power Control Centers. It is defined as the process of

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calculating the power generation of the generating units in the system in such a way that the total system demand is supplied most economically. It is the standard industrial practice that the fuel cost of generator is represented by polynomial for economic dispatch computation (EDC). The key issue is to determine the degree and the coefficients such that the error between the polynomial and test data is sufficiently low. Traditionally, in the EDC, the cost function for each generator is approximately represented by a quadratic function which is convex in nature. Present day large power generating units with multi-valves steam turbines exhibit a large variation in the input-output characteristic functions; as a result non-convexity appears in the characteristic curves. Major nonconvex economic dispatch problems may be listed as: 1. Economic dispatch with piecewise quadratic cost function (EDPQ) Piecewise quadratic cost function due to valve point effect Piecewise quadratic cost function due to multiple fuel mix

2. Economic dispatch with prohibited operating zones (EDPO). Thus the actual economic dispatch problem is nonconvex in nature requiring the accurate, robust and fast solution methodology. Various mathematical programming based optimization techniques have been applied to solve ED problem. Most of these are calculus-based optimization algorithms that are based on successive linearization and use the first and second order differentiations of objective function and its constraints equations as the search direction. They usually require heat input, power output characteristics of generators to be of monotonically increasing nature or of piecewise linearity thus resulting in an inaccurate dispatch. Further to handle the nonconvex economic dispatch problem in classical optimization dynamic programming has been used, but due to curse of dimensionality it has limitations. In a nutshell the economic dispatch problem has been solved for many of years and still no technique has been accepted as yet the best approach.

GA used by John Holland in early seventies basically emulates the optimization philosophy adopted in nature. The features of the working philosophy of the Genetic algorithm on the basis of which it carries out optimization may be listed as follows: 1. based on multiple searching points, i.e., population based search, 2. using operators inspired by biological evolution, such as crossover and mutation, 3. based on probabilistic transition rules, 4. fast convergence to near global optimum, 5. superior global searching capability in a complex searching surface using little information of searching space, such as derivative, continuity. The key disadvantage of the GA is that its convergence speed near the global optimum becomes slow. To use GA effectively it is necessary to overcome this deficiency. Hybrid models based on the integration of GA with another technique to counter balance its weaknesses may enhance its performance. GA is the potential solution methodology for nonconvex economic dispatch problem due to the independence of the objective function from the auxiliary information such as differentiability, continuity etc. In this thesis efforts have been made to develop binary coded genetic algorithm to solve economic dispatch problem using GA independently and GA based hybrid models.

1.3

Objectives The primary objectives of this thesis are outlined below: 1. To develop flexible and extensible computational framework as general environment for implementing the various algorithms for economic dispatch solution. 2. To formulate the economic dispatch problem in GA environment, its implementation in computational framework and finally testing. 3. To analyze the Performance of GA based evolution models for convex and nonconvex economic dispatch problem formed with reference to different initial population encoding schemes, selection methods, crossover operators, and biological mechanisms as operators. 4. To develop efficient GA based hybrid models through exploiting the strengths of GA and overcoming its weakness by combing the strengths of other techniques.
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5. To compare the results of the proposed hybrid models with results of GA based approach. 6. To review the operational problem of the National utility system NTDC and to develop its test circuit for economic dispatch studies. 1.4 Scope of the Work The contributions made in this thesis are: 1. The computational framework PED_Frame targeting power economic dispatch software application development is proposed, designed and implemented. The version one of the PED_Frame targets the implementation of traditional, GA based and hybrid methodologies for economic dispatch used in the present research work. 2. Formulation of economic dispatch problem in GA environment based on the followings: 3. 4. - Search for convex economic dispatch Real power search for convex economic dispatch and nonconvex economic dispatch due to valve point effect. Two biological methods Inversion and Deletion & Regeneration have been mapped as operators with crossover probability. Development of the evolution models for GA with reference to the following: 5. 6. 7. Three encoding strategies for initial population Four selection methods Eight crossover operators

Computer implementation of developed models in PED_Frame and testing on standard test systems and utilities test systems. The development of hybrid methodology for convex ED and its testing. Performance evaluation of different evolution models for nonconvex economic dispatch based on empirical results obtained on standard 18machines system.

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The development and testing of following three hybrid models for nonconvex economic dispatch: a. Hybrid Model-I: A Synergy of GA and Newtons Second Order Approach b. Hybrid Model II: Neuro-Genetic Hybrid Approach.

c. Hybrid ModelIII: A Hybrid of GA and Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP) 9. 10. 11. Formulation of Economic dispatch using Newtons Second Order Approach using sparsity based storage for Hybrid Model-I Development of swarm intelligence learning based feedforward neural network for Hybrid Model II. For the national utility system NTDC the tasks achieved includes: 1.5 Operational problems of the NTDC systems Development of four test systems Testing of the four systems for their performance using Newtons Raphson Algorithm. Development of 12-Machine 32-bus ED test circuit with data including cost curves, calculation of B-coefficients and system data. Development of 15, 25 and 34 machines test systems for ED studies by neglecting losses. ED studies.

Thesis Outline Chapter 2 presents the literature survey on economic dispatch problem with focus

on GA based approaches with the view to develop some observations and potential avenues for further investigations. Chapter 3 discusses the optimization techniques used in this thesis. These include the evolutionary computation with focus on genetic algorithm, particle swarm optimization, artificial neural networks, and local search techniques such as Newton second order approach and sequential quadratic programming. Chapter 4 highlights the design and implementation of the computational framework PED_Frame as common environment for implementing the algorithms for economic dispatch. Chapter 5 deals with the mathematical modeling of economic dispatch problem in genetic algorithm environment and algorithm development for GA based economic dispatch. A number of case studies using standard test systems and utility systems have
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been included for validation of algorithms. Finally there is nonconvex economic dispatch solution using various evolution models of GA with a view to evaluate the performance. Chapter 6 gives the discussion on Pakistani utility system NTDC along with proposed test circuit and ED studies. Chapter 7 presents following three hybrid models for nonconvex economic dispatch. Hybrid Model I: combines the GA with Newton second order approach and tested on 3-Machine and IEEE 5 and 6-Machine test systems. Hybrid Model-II: Neuro-Genetic approach integrates GA with feed forward neural network with swarm intelligence learning rule and has been tested on standard 3Machine test system. Hybrid Model-III: combines GA with sequential quadratic programming and has been tested on the standard test systems. Chapter 8 discusses the conclusions and suggests the areas for future research. Appendix A describes the test systems for numerical results. These include the standard test systems and utility system. Appendix B includes the discussion with reference to the optimization methods in chapter 3. Appendix C includes the detailed results of case studies conducted in chapter 5 and chapter 6. Appendix D includes the derived publications.