“…Hence, this study introduces a new technique in electricity price forecast by developing hour-ahead electricity price forecasting model with Least Square Support Vector Machine (LSSVM) and Bacterial Foraging Optimization Algorithm (BFOA). BFOA has a fast convergence [12] and has been explored in many fields such as face recognition [13], [14], biometric authentication [15], multimodal function [16], [17], and flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) [18]. Furthermore, researchers in control and power system developed BFOA models for Static Synchronous Series Compensator (SSSC) Damping Controller Design [19], robotic manipulator workspace optimization [20], three phase induction motor and electricity load forecasting [28], [34].…”