An intelligent θ-Modified Bat Algorithm to solve the non-convex economic dispatch problem considering practical constraints

•Introducing a new intelligent method for solving the practical economic dispatch.•Introducing a new powerful algorithm called θ-Modified Bat Algorithm for the optimization applications.•Introducing a new adaptive modification method based on Bat Algorithm.•Considering the practical constraints of economic dispatch.

This paper proposes a practical formulation for the non-convex economic dispatch problem to consider multi-fuel options, ramp rate limits, valve loading effect, prohibited operating zones and spinning reserve. A new optimization algorithm based on the θ-bat algorithm (θ-BA) is suggested to solve the problem. The θ-BA converts the Cartesian search space into the polar coordinates such that more search ability would be achieved. According to the complex, nonlinear, and constrained nature of the problem, a new self-adaptive modification method is proposed. The proposed modified θ-BA (θ-MBA) is constructed based on the roulette wheel mechanism to effectively increase the convergence of the algorithm. The high ability and satisfying performance of the proposed optimization method is examined on IEEE 15-unit, 40-unit and 100-unit test systems.