Multi-region combined heat and power economic dispatch based on modified group teaching optimization algorithm

Multi-region combined heat and power economic dispatch (MRCHPED) is a brand new optimization issue in power system operation. The MRCHPED uses the multiple regional structure to integrate power-only units, CHP units and heat-only units to achieve optimal economic dispatch while ensuring the supply of heat and power within each region. In this paper, an educational achievement guided group teaching optimization algorithm (EAGTOA) is developed and applied to solve the MRCHPED problem. In EAGTOA, aiming to improve the search efficiency, two historical archives are introduced to collect the valuable information of educational achievements from students and teachers, and are used in the update process of the EAGTOA. The EAGTOA algorithm is applied to solve three MRCHPED problems, including a small-scale MRCHPED with 2 regions and 9 units, a medium-scale MRCHPED with 3 regions and 17 units, and a large-scale MRCHPED with 3 regions and 96 units. The performance of EAGTOA is compared with several classical and recently-developed optimization algorithms. The simulation results show that the proposed EAGTOA can achieve better results in terms of solution accuracy and convergence speed for the MRCHPED problems.