Economic Load Dispatch using Novel Bat
Algorithm
S. Gautham
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
SASTRA University
Thanjavur, India
Abstract— The primary role of Economic Load Dispatch (ELD)
is for obtaining the most efficient operation out of a power system
generation network. The main objective of performing the ELD is
to minimize the generator fuel cost. The minimum cost function
found using optimization techniques is a widely researched area.
One such optimization technique is the Bat algorithm. In this
communication, Novel Bat Algorithm has been introduced to solve
the ELD problem. The Novel Bat Algorithm introduces the idea of
using Doppler Effect and movement of bats between different
habitats. It is compared with the Bat algorithm and the Particle
Swarm Optimization to find the most efficient among them. The
effectiveness of the proposed method is illustrated by testing it on
5-unit and 6-unit systems.
Keywords— Economic load dispatch; Novel Bat Algorithm;
Valve point loading; Bat Algorithm
I. INTRODUCTION
The emergence of optimization techniques has led to the
development of many new approaches for minimization of a
parameter in any problem in the recent past. New algorithms
developed are either nature inspired or are dependent on the
behavior of animals. Apart from development of new
optimization algorithms, many new variations of a particular
algorithm are being continuously developed. One such instance
is the Bat Algorithm, which was originally proposed in [1], and
has seen a variety of modifications being incorporated to find
which among them proves to be most optimal. In other words,
variations of the same algorithm are developed to determine the
best solution of a particular problem in a particular field of
study. In this paper, a new variation — the Novel Bat Algorithm
(NBA) has been discussed and applied for an ELD problem. As
per [2], this is the first attempt to solve an economic dispatch
problem using the NBA. The application of NBA and few other
algorithms are discussed to an economic dispatch problem.
Economic Dispatch (ED) is an important task in a power plant
which determines the optimal combination of power outputs
from all generating units at minimum cost and satisfying system
constraints.
The convex type ED problems can be solved by gradient and
Newton’s methods [3, 4]. Non convex ED problems can be
solved by dynamic programming, but they suffer from the
limitation of requiring dimensionality. Hence, newer algorithms
like the Bat Algorithm are being developed.
978-1-4673-8587-9/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
J. Rajamohan
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering
SASTRA University
Thanjavur, India
The paper is arranged as follows: Firstly, the ED problem
formulation is discussed. Then Bat Algorithm is presented,
following which the Novel Bat Algorithm and Particle
Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithms are briefly described.
Finally, numerical solution of a 5 bus and 6 bus system is
found using Novel Bat Algorithm and convergence graphs
are plotted. The results are compared with the other
algorithms.
II. ECONOMIC LOAD DISPATCH PROBLEM
The mathematical formulation of an ED problem can be
given as minimization of cost function (which is the
objective function) subject to different constraints. The
constraints, apart from the power balance equation, include
power generation limits of each generator. Equation (1) is the
objective cost function while (2) and (3) are the constraints
[5].
(1)
(2)
(3)
Here, n is the number of generating buses; P i is the power
th
generated by the i bus; Pd is the power demand and Pl is the
power loss.
III. BAT ALGORITHM
Bats are the only mammals with wings and they also have
advanced capability of echolocation. Most of the bats use
echolocation to a certain degree; among all the species,
micro-bats are famous for their extensive use of echolocation,
while mega bats do not use them. Micro-bats use
echolocation to detect prey, avoid obstacles, and locate their
roosting crevices in the dark [5].
If some of the echolocation characteristics of micro-bats
are idealized, various bat inspired algorithms can be
developed. For simplicity, the following approximate rules
are used:
1. All bats use echolocation to sense distance. They also
know the difference between food/prey and other background
barriers.
 2. Bats fly randomly with velocity vi at position xi with a
fixed frequency fmin (or wavelength λ), varying wavelength λ
(or frequency f) and loudness Ao to search for prey. They can
automatically adjust the wavelength (or frequency) of their
emitted pulses and adjust the rate of pulse emission (in the
range of 0 to 1) depending on the proximity of their targets.
3. Although the loudness can vary in many ways, it is
assumed that the loudness varies from a large value Ao to a
minimum value Amin.
The mathematical equations that can be formulated from the
above discussion are given below [6]:
) (4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
Another simplification is that ray tracing is not used in
estimating the time delay. In addition to these simplified
assumptions, subsequent approximations have been used for
simplicity. Generally, the frequency f in a range [fmin, fmax]
corresponds to a range of wavelengths [λ min, λmax].
IV. NOVEL BAT ALGORITHM
The bats that engage in habitat search vary with species. Bats
can adjust their echolocation behavior under different habitats to
which they get adapted to, thus prompting them to forage in
multiple habitats [7]. Also, different species of bats can forage
in the same habitat [8].
In the Bat Algorithm (BA), the Doppler Effect and the idea of
foraging of bats was not taken into consideration. In the original
BA, each virtual bat is represented by its velocity and position,
searches its prey in a D-dimensional space, and its trajectory is
obtained. Also according to BA, it is considered that the virtual bats
would forage only in one habitat. However, in reality, this is not
always the case. In NBA [6], Doppler Effect has been included in
the algorithm. Each virtual bat in the proposed algorithm can also
adaptively compensate for the Doppler Effect in echoes.
Meanwhile, the virtual bats are considered to have diverse
foraging habitats in the NBA. Due to the mechanical behavior
of the virtual bats considered in the BA, they search for their
food only in one habitat. However, the bats in NBA can search
for food in diverse habitats. In summary, the NBA consists of
the following idealized rules for mathematical formulation
purposes.
1. All bats can move around in different habitats.
2. All bats can compensate for Doppler Effect in echoes.
3. They can adapt and adjust their compensation rate
depending upon the proximity of their targets.
The simulation for economic dispatch problem has been
conducted on a 5 bus and a 6 bus system using this method and
has been found to be most optimal when compared with other
methods.
978-1-4673-8587-9/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
A. Quantum Behavior of Bats
It is assumed that the bats will behave in such a manner that
as soon as one bat finds food in the habitat, other bats would
immediately start feeding from them. Such an assumption leads
to the mathematical formulation of the virtual bat positions as
shown below [6]:
(8)
B. Mechanical Behavior of Bats
The speed of sound in air is 340 m/s. This speed cannot be
exceeded by the bats. Also the Doppler Effect is compensated by
the bats and this compensation rate has been mathematically
represented as CR. It varies among different bats. A value ξ is
considered as the smallest constant in the computer to avoid the
possibility of division by zero. The value of CR [0,1] and the
inertia weight w [0,1].
Here, if the bats do not compensate for the Doppler Effect
at all, then CR is assigned 0, if they compensate fully, CR is
assigned 1. Now, the following mathematical equations
explain the description [6]:
– (9)
(10)
(11)
(12)
C. Local Search
When bats get closer to their prey, it is logical to assume,
they would decrease their loudness and increase the pulse
emission rate. But apart from whatever loudness they use, the
factor of loudness in the surrounding environment also needs
to be considered. This means the mathematical equations are
developed as follows for the new position of the bat in the
local area are given by the below-mentioned equations, where
2 2
rand n(0,σ ) is a Gaussian distribution with mean 0 and σ as
standard deviation [6]. At time step t, the mean loudness of
all bats is .
If (rand (0, 1)>ri) (13)
(14)
and
σ 2= |
D. Pseudo code
The pseudo code for the novel bat algorithm is given below
and is similar to [6]. This idea can be used upon to formulate the
program for the ELD problem.
Input: N: the number of individuals (bats) contained by the
population
M: maximum number of iteration
P: the probability of habitat selection,
w: inertia weight,
CR: the compensation rates for Doppler Effect in
echoes
θ: contraction–expansion coefficient
G: the frequency of updating the loudness and
pulse emission rate
ν, φ; fmin; fmax; A0; r0: parameters in original Bat
Algorithm
t = 0; Initialize the population and the related parameters.
Evaluate the objective function value of each individual.
While (t < M)
If (rand (0, 1) < P)
Generate new solutions using Eq. 8.
Else
Generate new solutions using Eqs. (9) – (12). End
if.
If (rand (0, 1) > ri)
Generate a local solution around the selected
best solution using Eqs. (13) and (14).
End if
Evaluate the objective function value of each
individual.
Update solutions, the loudness and pulse emission rate
using Eqs. (4)–(7).
t
Rank the solutions and find the current best g .
t
If g does not improve in G time step,
Re-initialize the loudness Ai and set
temporary pulse rates ri which is a uniform
random number between [0.85, 0.9].
End if
t = t + 1;
End while
Output: the individual with the best objective function (fuel
cost function) value in the population.
V. PSO ALGORITHM
The algorithm for Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)
technique has been discussed in [9]. It comprises of the
following steps:
PSO intialization: Particles are considered to be part of
swarms and the objective is to choose the best particle in each
swarm. The function that is required be optimized, that is, either
maximized or minimized is initialized. All the required
variables, such as inertia weight, accelerating constants,
iterations, velocity and position of each particle with minimum
and maximum permissible values, are also initialized with
default values, if required. Generally, the variables gbest, pbest
and ibest are commonly used in all PSO algorithms.
Fitness Evaluation: The fitness of each particle is evaluated
978-1-4673-8587-9/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
and the gbest, pbest and ibest values are obtained. It is conducted
on the objective function by supplying possible solutions to
the objective function.
Updating gbest and ibest: The values of global best data and
individual best data are updated based on their previous
values and the current values that are obtained. Concurrently,
their position and velocity are also modified.
In the below equations, the velocity (v) and position
function (x) are described. The term c1 is cognitive coefficient
and c2 is social coefficient. The updated velocity and position
vectors are given as:
–
and
for i = 1, 2, 3, . . .,N
The variable pbest,i is used to store the best position of the ith
particle while gbest stores the value of the best position of all
particles. A maximum of N particles are considered. The
variables, r1 and r2 are random numbers in the interval [0, 1].
The term ‘k’ denotes the iteration number while ‘w’ denotes
the inertia weight.
Satisfying convergence criteria: An initial value of
convergence is set until which the iterations are performed.
Once the pre-set value of convergence is breached, the
iterations are stopped and the latest value of gbest is taken to
be the optimized value.
VI. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A comparison has been made between the Novel Bat
Algorithm, and other algorithms considering a 5 generator
bus (IEEE 14 bus) and a 6 generator bus (IEEE 30 bus)
system.
A. With valve point loading effect considered
The fuel cost coefficients with valve point loading effect
required for a 5 bus system is shown in Table I and the results
of NBA and BA are compared in Table II. The valve point
loading effect introduces additional cost coefficients (d and e)
apart from the three cost coefficients used in (1). Hence, the
equation is modified and is given in (15):
(15)
B. With losses considered
The various data required for a 6 generator bus system is
shown in Table III. The comparison of BA and NBA methods
has been shown in Table IV. It is seen that the total cost
incurred by adopting the NBA method for the same load of
TABLE I. FUEL COST COEFFICIENTS AND ACTIVE POWER LIMITS FOR A 5 BUS
SYSTEM

Bus ai bi ci di ei Pmin Pmax

No. (MW) (MW)
1 0.0015 1.8 40 200.0 0.035 50 300

2 0.0030 1.8 60 140.0 0.040 20 125

3 0.0012 2.1 100 160.0 0.038 30 175

4 0.0080 2 25 100.0 0.042 10 75

5 0.0010 2 120 180.0 0.037 40 250

TABLE II. COMPARISON BETWEEN BA AND NBA

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Cost ($/hr)
BA 229.14 101.30 114.05 74.26 211.23 2042.88 Fig. 2: Convergence graph for 6 bus system.

NBA 218.02 109.01 147.53 28.38 227.04 1837.90 1263 MW [10, 11]. Here, the valve point loading effect has
been neglected and losses have been considered. The loss data
TABLE III. FUEL COST COEFFICIENTS AND ACTIVE POWER LIMITS FOR A 6 BUS is given in [11]. The convergence graph is shown in Fig. 2.
SYSTEM For the NBA method, the power loss is calculated as 13.3569
MW.
Bus No. ai bi ci Pmin (MW) Pmax (MW)
VII. CONCLUSION
1 0.0070 7 240 100 500
In this paper, the Novel Bat Algorithm for an economic
2 0.0095 10 200 50 200
dispatch problem is discussed. The idea of Doppler Effect and
3 0.0090 8.5 220 80 300 foraging of bats between different habitats are the additions to
this algorithm. For the test cases of a 5 generator bus system
4 0.0090 11 200 50 150
with a power demand of 730MW and a 6 generator bus system
5 0.0080 10.5 220 50 200 with a power demand of 1263MW, this algorithm proves to be
6 0.0075 12 190 50 120 the best in giving the lowest cost, among the algorithms with
which it has been compared. Also, the 5 generator bus test
case involves the valve loading effects without power loss
TABLE IV. COMPARISON BETWEEN PSO, BA AND NBA being considered. The 6 generator bus test case considers
power losses but neglects valve loading effects. It can hence
P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6 Cost ($/hr)
be concluded that NBA is a robust algorithm for the
experiments performed. This method can be extended to
PSO 447.49 173.32 263.47 139.05 165.47 87.12 15450 determine its robustness for higher dimensional problems.
BA 447.40 173.27 263.39 138.90 165.38 87.02 15443
REFERENCES
NBA 435.94 191.62 264.63 147.32 157.71 78.57 15393
[1] Yang, X. S.,. “A New Metaheuristic Bat-Inspired Algorithm”, Nature
Inspired Cooperative Strategies for Optimization (NISCO 2010): Studies
in Computational Intelligence, Vol. 284, 2010, pp. 65-74.
th
[2] Fister I et al., “Bat algorithm: Recent advances”, IEEE 15 Int.
Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Informatics, 2014,
pp.163-167.
[3] Wood AJ, Wollenberg BF. Power Generation, Operation and Control.
New York: Wiley; 1996, pp. 29–39 [chapter 3].
[4] Ramanathan R., “Fast Economic Dispatch Based on the Penalty Factors
from Newton's Method”, IEEE Transactions on Power Apparatus and
Systems, Vol. PAS-104, No. 7, 1985, pp. 1624-1629.
[5] Gherbi Y.A, Bouzeboudja. H, Lakdja. F., “Economic Dispatch Problem
using Bat Algorithm”, Issue 24, Leonardo Journal of Sciences, 2014, pp.
75-84.
[6] Xian-Bing Meng et al, “A novel bat algorithm with habitat selection and
Doppler effect in echoes for optimization”, Expert Systems with
Applications (42), 2015, pp. 6350–6364.
[7] Schnitzler, H.U., and Kalko, E. K. V., “Echolocation by insect eating
bats”. Bioscience (51), 2001, pp.557–569.
Fig.1. Convergence curve for 5 bus system.

978-1-4673-8587-9/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE

[8] Haupt, M., Menzler, S., and Schmidt, S. D. “Flexibility of habitat use in
Eptesicus nilssonii: Does the species profit from anthropogenically
altered habitats?”, J of Mammalogy,(87), 2006, pp.351 – 361.
[9] Kennedy J. and Eberhart R., “Particle swarm optimization,” Proc. IEEE
Int. Conf. Neural Networks, vol. IV, 1995, pp. 1942–1948.
[10] Biswal S. et al. “Optimal power dispatch using bat algorithm”, Int. Conf.
on ICEETS, 2013, pp.1018-1023.
[11] Gaing ZL., “Particle Swarm optimization for solving economic dispatch
considering the generator constraints”, IEEE Trans. on Power Systems,
Vol.18, No.3, 2003, pp.1187-1195.

978-1-4673-8587-9/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE