Optimal Reactive Power Dispatch (ORPD) is a power system optimization tool that modifies system control variables such as bus voltage and transformer tap settings, and it compensates devices’ Volt Ampere Reactive (VAR) output. It is used to decrease real power loss, enhance the voltage profile, and promote stability. Furthermore, several issues have been faced in electricity markets, such as price volatility, transmission line congestion, and an increase in the cost of electricity during peak hours. Programs such as demand response (DR) provide system operators with more control over how small customers participate in lowering peak-hour energy prices and demand. This paper presents an extensive study on ORPD methodologies and DR programs for lowering voltage deviation, limiting cost, and minimizing power losses to create effective and economical operations systems. The main objectives of this work are to minimize costs and losses in the system and reduce voltage variation. The Grasshopper Optimization Algorithm (GOA) and Dragonfly Algorithm (DA) have been implemented successfully to solve this problem. The proposed technique has been evaluated by using the IEEE-30 bus system. The results obtained by the implementation of demand response systems show a considerable reduction in costs and load demands that benefit consumers through DR considerations. The results obtained from the GOA and DA are compared with those generated by other researchers and published in the literature to ascertain the algorithm’s efficiency.

This paper presents solution of short-term hydrothermal scheduling problem using an algorithm called Grasshopper optimization. The objective of hydrothermal scheduling is to reduce the total cost of generation by optimizing the output of power generation of different thermal and hydro plants for a certain time interval. A non-linear relationship between hydropower generation, net head and rate of water discharge is considered here. The complicated head-sensitive water-to-power conversion and piecewise output limit is also considered. To investigate the performance of this new technique, two test systems have been considered. The simulation results are compared with some well-known optimization methods such as Genetic algorithm, Biogeography based optimization, hybrid Differential evolution with Biogeography based optimization and Grey wolf optimizer algorithm. The simulation results show the superiority of this technique as compared to other well-known optimization methods.

In this paper, an effective meta-heuristic technique called Quasi-Oppositional Symbiotic Organisms Search is applied for solving non-convex economic dispatch problems. Symbiotic Organisms Search is a soft computing technique, inspired by organisms in the ecosystem. This technique is implemented for improving the solution quality in minimum time. In order to improve convergence rate, quasi-reflected numbers are used here instead of pseudo-random numbers. Different equality and inequality constraints such as transmission loss, load demand, prohibited operating zone, generator operating limits and boundary of ramp rate are considered here. Presence of multiple fuels and valve point are also considered in some cases. This algorithm is applied to four different test systems. Simulation results are compared with many recently developed optimization techniques to show the superiority and consistency of this method. Simulation results also show that the computational efficiency of this algorithm is much better than the other meta-heuristic methods available in the literature.