Short term hydrothermal scheduling via improved honey-bee mating optimization algorithm

In this paper، a new approach for solving short term hydrothermal scheduling problem is suggested، to minimize the total production cost and to produce electrical energy in an optimized way، by using honey-bee mating optimization algorithm. In the proposed method، lots of the hydrothermal system constraints such as power balance، water balance، time delay between reservoirs، volume limits and the operation limits of hydro and thermal plants، are considered. Therefore، the problem of short term hydrothermal scheduling becomes a complicated and nonlinear problem. In this paper، in addition to implementing the honey-bee mating optimization on a sample system، the improved honey-bee mating optimization algorithm has also been tested and analyzed. With regard to the simulation results، it is apparent that the improved honey-bee mating optimization has far higher convergence speed and takes less time، and less total cost in comparison with honey-bee mating optimization algorithm، genetic algorithm، particle swarm optimization algorithm and other optimization methods.