This work presents both application and comparison of the metaheuristic techniques to generation expansion planning (GEP) problem. The Metaheuristic techniques such as the genetic algorithm, differential evolution, evolutionary programming, evolutionary strategy, ant colony optimization, particle swarm optimization, tabu search, simulated annealing, and hybrid approach are applied to solve GEP problem. The original GEP problem is modified using the proposed methods virtual mapping procedure (VMP) and penalty factor approach (PFA), to improve the efficiency of the metaheuristic techniques. Further, intelligent initial population generation (IIPG), is introduced in the solution techniques to reduce the computational time. The VMP, PFA, and IIPG are used in solving all the three test systems. The GEP problem considered synthetic test systems for 6-year, 14-year, and 24-year planning horizon having five types of candidate units. The results obtained by all these proposed techniques are compared and validated against conventional dynamic programming and the effectiveness of each proposed methods has also been illustrated in detail.

This paper describes use of a multiobjective optimization method, elitist nondominated sorting genetic algorithm version II (NSGA-II), to the generation expansion planning (GEP) problem. The proposed model provides for decision maker choice from among the different trade-off solutions. Two different problem formulations are considered. In one formulation, the first objective is to minimize cost; the second objective is to minimize sum of normalized constraint violations. In the other formulation, the first objective is to minimize investment cost; the second objective is to minimize outage cost (or maximize reliability). Virtual mapping procedure is introduced to improve the performance of NSGA-II. The GEP problem considered is a test system for a six-year planning horizon having five types of candidate units. The results are compared and validated.