Optimization the Combined Heat and Power Economic Dispatch problem using Harmony Search Algorithm

Abstract

Recently, combined heat and power units, known ascogeneration, which produce both heat and electrical power, have played anincreasing in different industries. In order to utilize CHP units moreefficiently, economic dispatch problem is applied to determine the optimalcombination of the power and heat outputs of system while satisfying heat andpower demand and other constraints with minimum fuel cost. This problem isknown as combined heat and power economic dispatch (CHPED). Due to complexcharacteristics, heuristic and evolutionary based optimization approaches havebecame effective tools to solve the CHPED problem. The problem which is used inthis paper is non-linear, non-smooth and non-convex. Harmony Search Algorithmis applied to two tests with different characteristics. The obtained resultsdemonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method in solving non-convex and nonsmooth problems, with considering and non considering the transmission loss andalso with both equal and different initialization of the problem for the sameCHP units.