Solving the Combined Heat and Power Economic Dispatch Problem in Different Scale Systems Using the Imperialist Competitive Harris Hawks Optimization Algorithm

Abstract

The aim of electrical load dispatch (ELD) is to achieve the optimal planning of different power plants to supply the required power at the minimum operation cost. Using the combined heat and power (CHP) units in modern power systems, increases energy efficiency and, produce less environmental pollution than conventional units, by producing electricity and heat, simultaneously. Consequently, the ELD problem in the presence of CHP units becomes a very non-linear and non-convex complex problem called the combined heat and power economic dispatch (CHPED), which supplies both electric and thermal loads at the minimum operational cost. In this work, at first, a brief review of optimization algorithms, in different categories of classical, or conventional, stochastic search-based, and hybrid optimization techniques for solving the CHPED problem is presented. Then the CHPED problem in large-scale power systems is investigated by applying the imperialist competitive Harris hawks optimization (ICHHO), as the combination of imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA), and Harris hawks optimizer (HHO), for the first time, to overcome the shortcomings of using the ICA and HHO in the exploitation, and exploration phases, respectively, to solve this complex optimization problem. The effectiveness of the combined algorithm on four standard case studies, including 24 units as a medium-scale, 48, 84, units as the large-scale, and 96-unit as a very large-scale heat and power system, is detailed. The obtained results are compared to those of different algorithms to demonstrate the performance of the ICHHO algorithm in terms of better solution quality and lower fuel cost. The simulation studies verify that the proposed algorithm decreases the minimum operation costs by at least 0.1870%, 0.342%, 0.05224%, and 0.07875% compared to the best results in the literature.

Economic Dispatch of Combined Cycle Power Plant: A Mixed-Integer Programming Approach

“…Considering these factors is vital to prevent equipment damage, cut operating costs and enhance overall efficiency within integrated power systems. Below, we outline the contribution of this study, emphasizing the comparison with the results reported by the authors in [27,28,[32][33][34][35][36][37]:…”

“…The third approach is presented in Equation ( 5), which utilizes a piecewise method to depict the segments that form the cost curve. This representation differs from the mathematical models published in the literature [27,28,[32][33][34][35][36][37], we propose to incorporate a binary variable that simplifies the choice of a single operating state for the CCPP. It focuses exclusively on the two non-convex states of the CCPP, which enable a transition between them, and the binary variable facilitates its selection efficiently.…”