Modified imperialist competitive algorithm for environmental constrained energy management of microgrids

• Published in: Journal of cleaner production Vol. 202; pp. 273 - 292
• Main Authors: Rabiee, Abdorreza, Sadeghi, Mohammad, Aghaei, Jamshid
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 20.11.2018
• Subjects: Attraction and repulsion modified imperialist competitive algorithm (AR-ICA); Environmental/economic dispatch; Microgrids; Optimal operation management; Environmental/economic dispatch; Attraction and repulsion modified imperialist competitive algorithm (AR-ICA); Optimal operation management; Microgrids
• ISSN: 0959-6526; 1879-1786
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.08.129

Optimal energy management of microgrids with different objectives such as operation cost, air pollution and wider use of renewable energy sources is investigated in many research works. In this paper, the effect of different operation modes of microgrids to solve environmental/economic dispatch problem is evaluated. Different modes of operation of microgrid include islanding operation, grid-connected and unilateral or bilateral exchange of power with main grid. The imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) is one of the evolutionary algorithms that can model the competing imperialists to absorb colonies and uses it to find optimum solution. In this paper, a new method to improve the ICA algorithm is proposed in which the movement radius of the colonies toward the imperialist is adaptively adjusted in accordance with their position by means of adding direction and velocity parameters to the colonies. Thus, the colonies are attracted and repelled more intelligently by imperialists. The proposed method can create a trade-off between exploitation (i.e. local search) and exploration (i.e. global search) and prevents premature convergence while minimizing trapping in the local minima. Simulation results and comparison with other algorithms confirm high performance of the proposed algorithm. [Display omitted] •The environmental/economic dispatch problem for microgrids is evaluated.•Different modes of energy management operation of the microgrid have been studied.•A new method to improve the ICA algorithm is proposed.•The efficacy of the proposed improved ICA is extensively investigated.