Differential evolution approach for optimal reactive power dispatch

Differential evolution based optimal reactive power dispatch for real power loss minimization in power system is presented in this paper. The proposed methodology determines control variable settings such as generator terminal voltages, tap positions and the number of shunts to be switched, for real power loss minimization in the transmission system. The problem is formulated as a mixed integer nonlinear optimization problem. A generic penalty function method, which does not require any penalty coefficient, is employed for constraint handling. The formulation also checks for the feasibility of the optimal control variable setting from a voltage security point of view by using a voltage collapse proximity indicator. The algorithm is tested on standard IEEE 14, IEEE 30, and IEEE 118-Bus test systems. To show the effectiveness of proposed method the results are compared with Particle Swarm Optimization and a conventional optimization technique – Sequential Quadratic Programming.     

Multi-objective GA with fuzzy decision making for security enhancement in power system

Power system security enhancement is a major concern in the operation of power system. In this paper, the task of security enhancement is formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem with minimization of fuel cost and minimization of FACTS device investment cost as objectives. Generator active power, generator bus voltage magnitude and the reactance of Thyristor Controlled Series Capacitors (TCSC) are taken as the decision variables. The probable locations of TCSC are pre-selected based on the values of Line Overload Sensitivity Index (LOSI) calculated for each branch in the system. Multi-objective genetic algorithm (MOGA) is applied to solve this security optimization problem. In the proposed GA, the decision variables are represented as floating point numbers in the GA population. The MOGA emphasize non-dominated solutions and simultaneously maintains diversity in the non-dominated solutions. A fuzzy set theory-based approach is employed to obtain the best compromise solution over the trade-off curve. The proposed approach has been evaluated on the IEEE 30-bus and IEEE 118-bus test systems. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach for solving the multi-objective security enhancement problem.     

A charging-scheme decision model for electric vehicle battery swapping station using varied population evolutionary algorithms

This paper proposes a new battery swapping station (BSS) model to determine the optimized charging scheme for each incoming Electric Vehicle (EV) battery. The objective is to maximize the BSS’s battery stock level and minimize the average charging damage with the use of different types of chargers. An integrated objective function is defined for the multi-objective optimization problem. The genetic algorithm (GA), differential evolution (DE) algorithm and three versions of particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms have been implemented to solve the problem, and the results show that GA and DE perform better than the PSO algorithms, but the computational time of GA and DE are longer than using PSO. Hence, the varied population genetic algorithm (VPGA) and varied population differential evolution (VPDE) algorithm are proposed to determine the optimal solution and reduce the computational time of typical evolutionary algorithms. The simulation results show that the performances of the proposed algorithms are comparable with the typical GA and DE, but the computational times of the VPGA and VPDE are significantly shorter. A 24-h simulation study is carried out to examine the feasibility of the model.     

Genetic algorithms to solve the power system restoration planning problem

This study reports the use of a Genetic Algorithm (GA) to solve the Power System Restoration Planning Problem (PSRP). The solution to the PSRP is described by a series of operations or a plan to be used by the Power System operator immediately on the occurrence of a blackout in the electrical power supply. Our GA uses new initialization and crossover operators based on the electrical power network, which are able to generate and maintain the plans feasible along GA runs. This releases the Power Flow program, which represents the most computer demanding component, from computing the fitness function of unfeasible individuals. The method was designed for large transmission systems and results for three different electrical power networks are shown: IEEE 14-Bus, IEEE 30-Bus, and a large realistic system.     

Application and comparison of computational intelligence techniques for optimal location and parameter setting of UPFC

Unified power flow controller (UPFC) is one of the most effective flexible AC transmission systems (FACTS) devices for enhancing power system security. However, to what extent the performance of UPFC can be brought out, it highly depends upon the location and parameter setting of this device in the system. This paper presents a new approach based on computational intelligence (CI) techniques to find out the optimal placement and parameter setting of UPFC for enhancing power system security under single line contingencies (N?1 contingency). Firstly, a contingency analysis and ranking process to determine the most severe line outage contingencies, considering lines overload and bus voltage limit violations as a performance index, is performed. Secondly, a relatively new evolutionary optimization technique, namely: differential evolution (DE) technique is applied to find out the optimal location and parameter setting of UPFC under the determined contingency scenarios. To verify our proposed approach and for comparison purposes, simulations are performed on an IEEE 14-bus and an IEEE 30-bus power systems. The results, we have obtained, indicate that DE is an easy to use, fast, robust and powerful optimization technique compared with genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). Installing UPFC in the optimal location determined by DE can significantly enhance the security of power system by eliminating or minimizing the number of overloaded lines and the bus voltage limit violations.     

A multicriteria optimization model for cloud service provider selection in multicloud environments

Multicloud computing is a strategy that helps customers to reduce reliance on any single cloud provider (known as the vendor lock-in problem). The value of such strategy increases with proper selection of qualified service providers. In this paper, a constrained multicriteria multicloud provider selection mathematical model is proposed. Three metaheuristics algorithms (simulated annealing [SA], genetic algorithm [GA], and particle swarm optimization algorithm [PSO]) were implemented to solve the model, and their performance was studied and compared using a hypothetical case study. For the sake of comparison, Taguchi's robust design method was used to select the algorithms' parameters values, an initial feasible solution was generated using analytic hierarchy process (AHP)—as the most used method to solve the cloud provider selection problem in the literature, all three algorithms used that solution and, in order to avoid AHP limitations, another initial solution was generated randomly and used by the three algorithm in a second set of performance experiments. Results showed that SA, GA, PSO improved the AHP solution by 53.75%, 60.41%, and 60.02%, respectively, SA and PSO are robust because of reaching the same best solution in spite of the initial solution.     

Incorporating mutation scheme into krill herd algorithm for global numerical optimization

Recently, Gandomi and Alavi proposed a robust meta-heuristic optimization algorithm, called Krill Herd (KH), for global optimization. To improve the performance of the KH algorithm, harmony search (HS) is applied to mutate between krill during the process of krill updating instead of physical diffusion used in KH. A novel hybrid meta-heuristic optimization approach HS/KH is proposed to solve global numerical optimization problem. HS/KH combines the exploration of harmony search (HS) with the exploitation of KH effectively, and hence, it can generate the promising candidate solutions. The detailed implementation procedure for this improved meta-heuristic method is also described. Fourteen standard benchmark functions are applied to verify the effects of these improvements, and it is demonstrated that, in most cases, the performance of this hybrid meta-heuristic method (HS/KH) is superior to, or at least highly competitive with, the standard KH and other population-based optimization methods, such as ACO, BBO, DE, ES, GA, HS, KH, PSO, and SGA. The effect of the HS/FA parameters is also analyzed.     

求解作业车间调度问题的微粒群遗传退火算法

标准微粒群算法（PSO）通常被用于求解连续优化的问题,很少被用于离散问题的优化求解,如作业车间调度问题（JSP）。因此,针对PSO算法易早熟、收敛慢等缺点提出一种求解作业车间调度问题（JSP）的混合微粒群算法。算法将微粒群算法、遗传算法（GA）、模拟退火（SA）算法相结合,既增强了算法的局部搜索能力,降低了算法对参数的依赖,同时改善了PSO算法和GA算法易早熟的缺点。对经典JSP问题的仿真实验表明：与标准微粒群算法相比,该算法不仅能有效避免算法中的早熟问题,并且算法的全局收敛性得到了显著提高。     

广义粒子群优化模型

粒子群优化算法提出至今一直未能有效解决的离散及组合优化问题．针对这个问题,文中首先回顾了粒子群优化算法在整数规划问题的应用以及该算法的二进制离散优化模型,并分析了其缺陷．然后,基于传统算法的速度一位移更新操作,在分析粒子群优化机理的基础上提出了广义粒子群优化模型（GPSO）,使其适用于解决离散及组合优化问题．GPSO模型本质仍然符合粒子群优化机理,但是其粒子更新策略既可根据优化问题的特点设计,也可实现与已有方法的融合．该文以旅行商问题（TSP）为例,针对遗传算法（GA）解决该问题的成功经验,使用遗传操作作为GPSO模型中的更新算子,进一步提出基于遗传操作的粒子群优化模型,并以Inverover算子作为模型中具体的遗传操作设计了基于GPSO模型的TSP算法．与采用相同遗传操作的GA比较,基于GPSO模型的算法解的质量与收敛稳定性提高,同时计算费用显著降低．     

An efficient hybrid approach based on PSO, ACO and k-means for cluster analysis

Clustering is a popular data analysis and data mining technique. A popular technique for clustering is based on k-means such that the data is partitioned into K clusters. However, the k-means algorithm highly depends on the initial state and converges to local optimum solution. This paper presents a new hybrid evolutionary algorithm to solve nonlinear partitional clustering problem. The proposed hybrid evolutionary algorithm is the combination of FAPSO (fuzzy adaptive particle swarm optimization), ACO (ant colony optimization) and k-means algorithms, called FAPSO-ACO–K, which can find better cluster partition. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated through several benchmark data sets. The simulation results show that the performance of the proposed algorithm is better than other algorithms such as PSO, ACO, simulated annealing (SA), combination of PSO and SA (PSO–SA), combination of ACO and SA (ACO–SA), combination of PSO and ACO (PSO–ACO), genetic algorithm (GA), Tabu search (TS), honey bee mating optimization (HBMO) and k-means for partitional clustering problem.     

Study of differential search algorithm based automatic generation control of an interconnected thermal-thermal system with governor dead-band

An attempt has been made to the effective application of a recently introduced, powerful optimization technique called differential search algorithm (DSA), for the first time to solve load frequency control (LFC) problem in power system. In this paper, initially, DSA optimized classical PI/PIDF controller is implemented to an identical two-area thermal-thermal power system and then the study is extended to two more realistic power systems which are widely used in the literature. To assess the usefulness of DSA, three enhanced competitive algorithms namely comprehensive learning particle swarm optimization (CLPSO), ensemble of mutation and crossover strategies and parameters in differential evolution (EPSDE), and success history based DE (SHADE) are studied in this paper. Moreover, the superiority of proposed DSA optimized PI/PID/PIDF controller is validated by an extensive comparative analysis with some recently published meta-heuristic algorithms such as firefly algorithm (FA), bacteria foraging optimization algorithm (BFOA), genetic algorithm (GA), craziness based particle swarm optimization (CRPSO), differential evolution (DE), teaching-learning based optimization (TLBO), particle swarm optimization (PSO), and quasi-oppositional harmony search algorithm (QOHSA). A case of robustness and sensitivity analysis has been performed for the concerned test system under parametric uncertainty and random load perturbation. Furthermore, to demonstrate the efficacy of proposed DSA, the system nonlinearities like reheater of the steam turbine and governor dead band are included in the system modeling. The extensive results presented in this article demonstrate that proposed DSA can effectively improve system dynamics and may be applied to real-time LFC problem.     

Markowitz-based portfolio selection with cardinality constraints using improved particle swarm optimization

This work presents particle swarm optimization (PSO), a collaborative population-based meta-heuristic algorithm for solving the Cardinality Constraints Markowitz Portfolio Optimization problem (CCMPO problem). To our knowledge, an efficient algorithmic solution for this nonlinear mixed quadratic programming problem has not been proposed until now. Using heuristic algorithms in this case is imperative. To solve the CCMPO problem, the proposed improved PSO increases exploration in the initial search steps and improves convergence speed in the final search steps. Numerical solutions are obtained for five analyses of weekly price data for the following indices for the period March, 1992 to September, 1997: Hang Seng 31 in Hong Kong, DAX 100 in Germany, FTSE 100 in UK, S&P 100 in USA and Nikkei 225 in Japan. The test results indicate that the proposed PSO is much more robust and effective than existing PSO algorithms, especially for low-risk investment portfolios. In most cases, the PSO outperformed genetic algorithm (GA), simulated annealing (SA), and tabu search (TS).     

Adaptive PSODV algorithm for OPF with non-smooth cost functions and statistical analysis

This paper presents a particle swarm optimization with differentially perturbed velocity hybrid algorithm with adaptive acceleration coefficient (APSO-DV) for solving the optimal power flow problem with non-smooth and non-convex generator fuel cost characteristics. The APSO-DV employs differentially perturbed velocity with adaptive acceleration coefficient for updating the positions of particles for the particle swarm optimization. The feasibility of the proposed approach was tested on IEEE 30-bus and IEEE 118-bus systems with three different objective functions. Several cases were investigated to test and validate the robustness of the proposed method in finding the optimal solution. The effectiveness of the proposed approach was tested including contingency also. Simulation results demonstrate that the APSO-DV provides superior results compared to classical DE, PSO, PSO-DV and other methods recently reported in the literature. An innovative statistical analysis based on central tendency measures and dispersion measures was carried out on the bus voltage profiles and voltage stability indices.     

时间约束下的应急物流车辆调配模型及算法研究

应急物流车辆调配是一个非常重要而实际的研究课题,调配的首要条件是满足时间要求下的总费用最低。建立了满足应急时间约束下系统总费用最小的数学模型,采用一种新的基于模式搜索的变尺度混沌粒子群算法对其进行优化。算例通过与遗传算法和标准粒子群优化算法相比较,得出该算法具有更好的寻优速度和寻优效率,从而证明了提出的方法的可行性和有效性。     

基于GA-PSO的天基预警系统资源调度方法

为解决天基预警系统中的卫星资源调度问题,从预警任务特点出发,在对预警任务进行分解的基础上,建立了资源调度模型．结合传统遗传算法（GA）和粒子群算法（PSO）的优点,采用一种混合遗传粒子群（GA-PSO）算法来求解资源调度问题．该算法在解决粒子编解码问题的前提下,将遗传算法的遗传算子应用于粒子群算法,改善了粒子群算法的寻优能力．实验结果表明,提出的算法能有效解决多目标探测时天基预警系统的资源调度问题,调度结果优于传统粒子群算法和遗传算法．     

Pickup and delivery problem using metaheuristics techniques

Dial-a-ride problem (DARP) is an optimization problem which deals with the minimization of the cost of the provided service where the customers are provided a door-to-door service based on their requests. This optimization model presented in earlier studies, is considered in this study. Due to the non-linear nature of the objective function the traditional optimization methods are plagued with the problem of converging to a local minima. To overcome this pitfall we use metaheuristics namely Simulated Annealing (SA), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Artificial Immune System (AIS). From the results obtained, we conclude that Artificial Immune System method effectively tackles this optimization problem by providing us with optimal solutions.     

An improved firefly algorithm for solving dynamic multidimensional knapsack problems

There is a wide range of publications reported in the literature, considering optimization problems where the entire problem related data remains stationary throughout optimization. However, most of the real-life problems have indeed a dynamic nature arising from the uncertainty of future events. Optimization in dynamic environments is a relatively new and hot research area and has attracted notable attention of the researchers in the past decade. Firefly Algorithm (FA), Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Differential Evolution (DE) have been widely used for static optimization problems, but the applications of those algorithms in dynamic environments are relatively lacking. In the present study, an effective FA introducing diversity with partial random restarts and with an adaptive move procedure is developed and proposed for solving dynamic multidimensional knapsack problems. To the best of our knowledge this paper constitutes the first study on the performance of FA on a dynamic combinatorial problem. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm the same problem is also modeled and solved by GA, DE and original FA. Based on the computational results and convergence capabilities we concluded that improved FA is a very powerful algorithm for solving the multidimensional knapsack problems for both static and dynamic environments.     

A rotary chaotic PSO algorithm for trustworthy scheduling of a grid workflow

In this paper, a rotary chaotic particle swarm optimization (RCPSO) algorithm is presented to solve trustworthy scheduling of a grid workflow. In general, the grid workflow scheduling is a complex optimization problem which requires considering various scheduling criteria so as to meet a wide range of QoS requirements from users. Traditional researches into grid workflow scheduling mainly focus on the optimization constrained by time and cost. The key requirements for reliability, availability and security are not considered adequately. The main contribution of this study is to propose a new approach for trustworthy workflow scheduling in a large-scale grid with rich service resources, and present the RCPSO algorithm to optimize the scheduling performance in a multi-dimensional complex space. Experiments were done in two grid applications with at most 120 candidate services supplied to each task of various workflows. The results show better performance of the RCPSO in solving trustworthy scheduling of grid workflow problems as compared to GA, ACO and other recent variants of PSO.     

A hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm for optimization of crew scheduling

Crew scheduling problem is the problem of assigning crew members to the flights so that total cost is minimized while regulatory and legal restrictions are satisfied. The crew scheduling is an NP-hard constrained combinatorial optimization problem and hence, it cannot be exactly solved in a reasonable computational time. This paper presents a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm synchronized with a local search heuristic for solving the crew scheduling problem. Recent studies use genetic algorithm (GA) or ant colony optimization (ACO) to solve large scale crew scheduling problems. Furthermore, two other hybrid algorithms based on GA and ACO algorithms have been developed to solve the problem. Computational results show the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed hybrid PSO algorithm over other algorithms.