Firefly algorithm for congestion management in deregulated environment

In competitive electricity market, congestion is a serious economic and reliability concern. Congestion is a common problem that an independent system operator faces in open access electricity market. This paper presents a reliable and efficient meta-heuristic based approach to solve congestion problem. The proposed approach of the present work employs firefly algorithm (FFA) for alleviation of transmission network congestion in a pool based electricity market via active power rescheduling of generators. FFA is a new meta-heuristic approach based on flashing patterns and behavior of fireflies. Various important security constraints such as load bus voltage and line loading have been taken into account while dealing with congestion problem. The proposed methodology may help in removing the congestion of line with minimum rescheduling cost. The numerical results of modified IEEE 30- and 57-bus test power systems are illustrated.