Abstract
Optimal Economic Dispatch (ED) is a precious and useful method for minimizing the total cost of power generation of thermal units. Since the optimal ED problem is a non-convex nonlinear constraint optimization problem, several methods have been proposed in the last years to solve it effectively. In this way, this paper suggests a new intelligent method based on Social Spider Optimization (SSO) algorithm to solve the ED problem globally. The SSO algorithm is constructed based on the cooperative behavior of social spiders in a colony and can solve both continuous and discontinuous problems. In order to improve the search ability of this algorithm, we also suggest the levy version of this algorithm called levy SSO or shortly LSSO. For making the problem more practical, valve-loading effect, prohibited zone, multi-fuel option and spinning reserve are considered as the constraints of the problem. The superiority and high stability of the proposed LSSO is demonstrated using the 6-bus, 10-bus and 40 bus IEEE test systems.