Maximum loadability limit of power system using hybrid differential evolution with particle swarm optimization

Differential evolution (DE), a simple evolutionary algorithm which shows superior performance in global optimization. Since it utilizes the differential information to get the new candidate solution, sometimes it results in instability of performance. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is widely used to solve the optimization problems as it can converge quickly. But PSO easily gets stuck in local optima. Hybridization of DE and PSO (DEPSO) eliminates the disadvantages of both. This paper presents the application of DEPSO algorithm to determine the maximum loadability limit of power system. It is tested on Matpower 30 bus and IEEE 118 bus systems. To compare the performance of this DEPSO algorithm with other evolutionary algorithms like DE and Multi Agent Hybrid PSO, statistical measures like best, mean, standard deviation of results and average computation time over 20 independent trials are considered here. The results show the better performance of DEPSO algorithm to solve the maximum loadability problem. DEPSO algorithm provides high maximum loading point in reduced time. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.