Hydrothermal Economic Dispatch Incorporating the Valve Point Effect in Thermal Units Solved by Heuristic Techniques

Katherine Hernández, Carlos Barrera-Singaña () and Luis Tipán
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Katherine Hernández: Department of Electrical Engineering, Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, Quito EC170702, Ecuador
Carlos Barrera-Singaña: Department of Electrical Engineering, Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, Quito EC170702, Ecuador
Luis Tipán: Department of Electrical Engineering, Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, Quito EC170702, Ecuador

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 11, 1-21

Abstract: This document explores short-term hydrothermal economic dispatch (HTED) while explicitly modeling the valve-point effect of thermal units as a factor that adds complexity to power system optimization. Two nature-inspired optimizers, the Bat Algorithm (BAT) and the Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithm, were used on a 24 h horizon for nine unit power plants (five thermal, four hydro). After 30 independent runs, BAT produced the lowest daily operating cost at USD 307,952.44, whereas ABC obtained USD 311,457.48, a 1.14% saving (USD 3.5 k) in favour of BAT. However, ABC converged almost twice as fast, stabilizing after around 40 iterations, while BAT required around 80 iterations. The results demonstrate that BAT offers a modest but measurable economic advantage, whereas ABC provides faster convergence, which is important when real-time computational limits dominate. These quantitative findings confirm that meta-heuristic techniques are practical tools for HTED and highlight the trade-off between cost minimization and computational speed.

Keywords: artificial bee colony algorithm; bat algorithm; hydrothermal economic dispatch; metaheuristic optimization; valve point effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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