Abstract

OSCULLO, José  and  PILAQUINGA, Santiago. Economic Dispatch of Thermal Units with Linear Cost Functions using Firefly Algorithm. Rev Politéc. (Quito) [online]. 2022, vol.50, n.1, pp.35-42. ISSN 2477-8990.  https://doi.org/10.33333/rp.vol50n1.04.

This paper shows economic dispatch of thermal units of a real hydrothermal system using the firefly algorithm. Although the problem of dispatch of thermal units has been dealt in other research, in the present study it is considered as an objective function of dispatch of thermal units through their linear production cost with the consideration of binary constraints. The firefly algorithm has proven to have a high optimization capacity to determine an optimal point based on behavioral characteristics of nature such as genetic algorithms, but it is differentiated by the ability to make small adjustments near the solution. The firefly algorithm is implemented as an alternative solution due to that the mathematics classic methods present limitations in searching of the optimal solution for this kind of problems. The firefly swarm algorithm associates the objective function with light intensity, this property based in the brightness modifies the behavior of fireflies and makes possible a more rapid convergence towards global solutions. The proposed methodology is implemented in Matlab and its performance is evaluated using the National Interconnected System of Ecuador (SNI) to determine the economic load dispatch of thermal units on weekdays, weekends and holidays.

Keywords : Power generation dispatch; thermal units; firefly algorithm; heuristic algorithms; swarm intelligence.

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