Optimal operation of autonomous microgrid using HS–GA

•Optimal DGs operation and location in an island microgrid are simultaneously provided.•A multi-objective function is proposed to formulate the paper problem.•A new algorithm, named HS–GA, for solving the multi-objective problem is proposed.•A novel algorithm for the power flow problem in an islanded microgrid is proposed.

Identifying location and operation of DGs are vital in effective performance of autonomous MGs. This paper gives a novel optimization method for finding the optimal operation and location of DGs. The optimal operation is obtained via setting DGs economic droop parameters which operate based on droop control. A multi-objective function is developed to provide a new problem formulation for finding the optimal operation of DG units. The objectives include the fuel consumption cost, voltage stability index and the total voltage variation of MG. A hybrid optimization algorithm is proposed to solve the problem by combing the harmony algorithm (HS) and mutation and crossover operators of the genetic algorithm (GA). To find the best solution of non-dominated results a fuzzy method is employed. The performance of the paper approach is compared with other optimization and non-optimization methods in MG with 33 and 69 buses using MATLAB. The results support a good performance for the paper approach.