A Novel Swarm-based Approach for Load Dispatch of Hydropower Units

This paper proposes a novel swarm-based approach called bee evolutionary optimization algorithm (BEOA) to solve the load dispatch of hydropower units. The BEOA is developed by simulating the real-world bees mating process. In the BEOA, the diversity of population is improved by introducing the new male bees in the crossover operation. Moreover, the fitness of population is further enhanced using a heuristic function which is inspired by the feeding action of worker bees. The BEOA is tested and validated by dealing with the load dispatch problem of Wujiangdu Hydropower Plant, which plays an important role in the power grid operation. The results from the case study demonstrate that the BEOA can produce practical unit schedules, and is faster than the dynamic programming.