With the large-scale growth and grid connection of intermittent renewable energy such as wind and solar, the problem of increasing renewable energy curtailment rate and system backup flexibility has become increasingly prominent. In order to solve the problem of high proportion of renewable energy scientific consumption and flexible and stable operation of energy system. We propose a flexible and economical dispatch method based on data-driven multi-regional power system. For the problem of economic dispatch of multi-area power system, a mathematical calculation model is established to satisfy the constraints of unit output, system power balance, unit ramp rate, and valve point effect, and to consider the requirement of minimizing the cost of multi-area power load comprehensively. Based on data-driven, this paper adopts an improved fruit fly optimization algorithm to quickly find the global optimal solution. The calculations are performed by IEEE6 simulation test system, and the results verify the feasibility of the proposed algorithm. The improved fruit fly optimization algorithm is compared and analyzed with other algorithms considering the quality of the obtained solutions. The results show the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed algorithm in solving multi-area economic dispatching problems in real power systems.