Multi-area economic dispatch with reserve sharing using dynamically controlled particle swarm optimization

• DCPSO method is proposed for MAED problems with new reserve sharing scheme.
• Contingency and pooling spinning reserves are considered separately.
• Several modifications are suggested in the control equation of PSO.
• A five-area 140 generators test system is introduced.

A dynamically controlled PSO (DCPSO) is proposed to solve Multi-area Economic Dispatch (MAED) problem with reserve sharing. The objective of MAED problem is to determine the optimal value of power generation and interchange of power through tie-lines interconnecting the areas in such a way that the total fuel cost of thermal generating units of all areas is minimized while satisfying operational and spinning reserve constraints. The control equation of the proposed PSO is augmented by introducing improved cognitive and social components of the particle’s velocity. The parameters of the governing equation are dynamically controlled using exponential functions. The overall methodology effectively regulates the velocities of particles during their whole course of flight in such a way that results in substantial improvement of the performance of PSO. The effectiveness of the proposed method has been investigated on multi-area 4 generators, 40 generators and 140 generators test systems with multiple constraints such as reserve sharing and tie-line power. The application results show that the proposed DCPSO method is very promising for large-dimensional MAED problems.