Solution of optimal power flow with FACTS devices using a novel oppositional krill herd algorithm

•OKHA algorithm is applied for the solution of OPF with FACTS.•OKHA is implemented on IEEE 30-bus and IEEE 57-bus test power systems.•Four different objective functions are considered.•The results of OKHA are compared with other reported algorithms.•Suitability of OKHA for engineering application is established.

Krill herd algorithm (KHA) is a novel meta-heuristic approach that is influenced from the herding behaviour of the krill swarms searching for food or communication with each other. The proposed opposition based KHA (OKHA) is intended here, for solving the optimal power flow (OPF) problem of power system, incorporating flexible AC transmission systems (FACTS) devices, namely, thyristor controlled series capacitor and thyristor controlled phase shifter. In the proposed OKHA, the concept of opposition based population initialization and opposition based generation jumping are employed in the basic KHA to enhance its computational speed and convergence profile. The potential of the proposed OKHA is assessed, successfully, on modified IEEE-30 bus and IEEE-57 bus test power systems. The four different objective functions are formulated here that reflects the minimization of fuel cost, active power transmission loss, emission and combined economic and environmental cost, separately. Simulation results, presented in this paper, indicate that the proposed approach yields superior solution over the other popular methods surfaced in the recent state-of-the-art literature including basic KHA and also show its effectiveness for the solution of OPF problem of power system equipped with FACTS devices.