Leonardo Journal of Sciences Issue 14, January-June 2009

ISSN 1583-0233 p. 1-17

Ant Colony Optimization Applied on Combinatorial Problem for Optimal

Power Flow Solution

Brahim GASBAOUI and Boumediène ALLAOUA*

Bechar University, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering,
B.P 417 BECHAR (08000) Algeria

E-mail(s): [email protected], [email protected]

(*Corresponding Author)

Abstract
This paper presents an efficient and reliable evolutionary-based approach to
solve the optimal power flow (OPF) combinatorial problem. The proposed
approach employs Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm for optimal
settings of OPF combinatorial problem control variables. Incorporation of
ACO as a derivative-free optimization technique in solving OPF problem
significantly relieves the assumptions imposed on the optimized objective
functions. The proposed approach has been examined and tested on the
standard IEEE 57-bus test System with different objectives that reflect fuel
cost minimization, voltage profile improvement, and voltage stability
enhancement. The proposed approach results have been compared to those
that reported in the literature recently. The results are promising and show the
effectiveness and robustness of the proposed approach.
Keywords
Optimal Power Flow; Ant Colony Optimization; Combinatorial Optimization;
Power Systems; Metaheuristic.

http://lejpt.academicdirect.org
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 Ant Colony Optimization Applied on Combinatorial Problem for Optimal Power Flow Solution
Brahim GASBAOUI and Boumediène ALLAOUA

Introduction

In the past two decades, the problem of optimal power flow (OPF) has received much
attention. It is of current interest of many utilities and it has been marked as one of the most
operational needs. The OPF problem solution aims to optimize a selected objective function
such as fuel cost via optimal adjustment of the power System control variables, while at the
same time satisfying various equality and inequality constraints. The equality constraints are
the power flow equations, while the inequality constraints are the limits on control variables
and the operating limits of power system dependent variables. The problem control variables
include the generator real powers, the generator bus voltages, the transformer tap settings, and
the reactive power of switchable VAR sources, while the problem dependent variables
include the load bus voltages, the generator reactive powers, and the line flows. Generally, the
OPF problem is a large-scale highly constrained nonlinear optimization problem.
Useful OPF is limited by the high dimensionality of power systems and the
incomplete domain dependent knowledge of power system engineers. The first limitation is
addressed by numerical optimization procedures based on successive linearization using the
first and the second derivatives of objective functions and their constraints as the search
directions or by linear programming solutions to imprecise models [1, 2]. The advantages of
such methods are in their mathematical underpinnings, but disadvantages exist also in the
sensitivity to problem formulation, algorithm selection and usually converge to local minima
[3]. The second limitation, incomplete domain knowledge, precludes also the reliable use of
expert systems where rule completeness is not possible. In the evolutionary and adaptive
algorithms one of the most recent is the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) computational
paradigm introduced by Marco Dorigo in his Ph.D. thesis in 1992 [4], and expanded it in his
further work, as summarized in [5, 6, 7].
A new powerful approach of ACO is accessible to these optimization problems made
possible by the increasing availability of high performance computers at relatively low costs.
As the name suggests, these algorithms have been inspired in the real ant colonies behavior.
When searching for food, ants initially explore the area surrounding their nest in a random
manner. As soon as an ant finds a food source, it evaluates quantity and quality of the food
and carries some of the found food to the nest. During the return trip, the ant deposits a
chemical pheromone trail on the ground. The quantity of pheromone deposited, which may

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 Leonardo Journal of Sciences Issue 14, January-June 2009
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depend on the quantity and quality of the food, will guide other ants to the food source. The
indirect communication between the ants via the pheromone trails allows them to find shortest
paths between their nest and food sources. This functionality of real ant colonies is exploited
in artificial ant colonies in order to solve global optimization searching problems when the
closed-form optimization technique cannot be applied.
Characters of the ACO algorithms use the parameters, probabilistic model that is used
to generate solutions to the problem under consideration. The probabilistic model is called the
pheromone model. The pheromone model consists of a set of model parameters, which are
called the pheromone trail parameters. The pheromone trail parameters have values, called
pheromone values. At run-time, ACO algorithms try to update the pheromone values in such a
way that the probability to generate high-quality solutions increases over time. The
pheromone values are updated using previously generated solutions. The update aims to
concentrate the search in regions of the search space containing high-quality solutions. In
particular, the reinforcement of solution components depending on the solution quality is an
important ingredient of ACO algorithms. It implicitly assumes that good solutions consist of
good solution components. To learn which components contribute to good solutions can help
to assemble them into better solutions.
ACO methods have been successfully applied to diverse combinatorial optimization
problems including travelling salesman [8, 9], quadratic assignment [10, 11], vehicle routing
[12, 13, 14], telecommunication networks [15], graph colouring [16], constraint satisfaction
[17], Hamiltonian graphs [18], and scheduling [19, 20, 21].
This paper presents the application of the ant colony optimization algorithms in the
Optimal Power Flow (OPF) combinatorial problem applied on IEEE 57-bus Electrical
Network. The algorithm was developed MATLAB environment programming (R2008a,
v7.6).

Problem Formulation

Optimal Power Flow is defined as the process of allocating generation levels to the
thermal generating units in service within the power system, so that the system load is
supplied entirely and most economically [30, 31]. The objective of the OPF problem is to

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 Ant Colony Optimization Applied on Combinatorial Problem for Optimal Power Flow Solution
Brahim GASBAOUI and Boumediène ALLAOUA

calculate, for a single period of time, the output power of every generating unit so that all
demands are satisfied at minimum cost, while satisfying different technical constraints of the
network and the generators. The problem can be modeled by a system which consists of ng
generating units connected to a single bus-bar serving an electrical load Pd. The input to each
unit shown as Fi, represents the generation cost of the unit. The output of each unit Pgi is the
electrical power generated by that particular unit. The total cost of the system is the sum of
the costs of each of the individual units.
The essential constraint on the operation is that the sum of the output powers must
equal the load demand. The standard OPF problem can be written in the following form:
 min {F( x )}

Subject to : h ( x ) = 0 (1)
 and : g( x ) ≥ 0

where F(x) the objective function, h(x) represents the equality constraints, g(x)
represents the inequality constraints and x is the vector of the control variables, that is those
which can be varied by a control center operator (generated active and reactive powers,
generation bus voltage magnitudes, transformers).

Objective Function
Generally, the OPF problem can be expressed as minimizing the cost of production of
the real power which is given by objective function FT
where,
ng
FT = ∑ Fi ( Pg i ) (2)
i =1

The fuel cost function or input-output characteristic of the generator may be obtained
from design calculations or from heat rate tests. Many different formats are used to represent
this characteristic. The data obtained from heat rate tests or from the plant design engineers
may be fitted by a polynomial curve. It is usual that, quadratic characteristic is fit to these
data. A series of straight-line segments may also be used to represent the input-output
characteristic [30]. The fuel cost function of a generator that usually used in power system
operation and control problem is represented with a second-order polynomial.
ng
Fi ( Pg i ) = ∑ (a i + bi Pg i + ci Pg i2 ) (3)
i =1

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 Leonardo Journal of Sciences Issue 14, January-June 2009
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Where ng is the number of generation including the slack bus. Pg is the generated
active power at bus i. ai - bi and ci are the unit costs curve for ith generator.
The standard OPF problem can be described mathematically as an objective with two
constraints as:
ng

∑ Pg
i=1
i = Pd + PL , i = 1, ng (4)

Pg imin ≤ Pg i ≤ Pg max
i , i = 1, ng (5)
where:
Pg i : Real power output of i-th generator (MW);

FT: Total Operating cost ($ /h);

Fi ( Pg i ) : Operating cost of unit i ($ /h);
Pd: Total demand (MW);
PL: Transmission losses (MW);
Pg imin ; Pg imax : Operating power limits of unit i (MW);

ng: Total number of units in service.

Optimal Power Flow Using Ant Colony Optimization

Ant colony optimization method description

In the ant colony optimization (ACO), a colony of artificial ants cooperates in finding
good solutions to difficult optimization problems. Cooperation is a key design component of
ACO algorithms: The choice is to allocate the computational resources to a set of relatively
simple agents (artificial ants) that communicate indirectly by stigmergy. Good solutions are an
emergent property of the agent’s cooperative interaction.
Artificial ants have a double nature. On the one hand, they are an abstraction of those
behavioral traits of real ants which seemed to be at the heart of the shortest path finding
behavior observed in real ant colonies. On the other hand, they have been enriched with some
capabilities which do not find a natural counterpart. In fact, we want ant colony optimization to
be an engineering approach to the design and implementation of software Systems for the
solution of difficult optimization problems. It is therefore reasonable to give artificial ants some

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 Ant Colony Optimization Applied on Combinatorial Problem for Optimal Power Flow Solution
Brahim GASBAOUI and Boumediène ALLAOUA

capabilities that, although not corresponding to any capacity of their real ant’s counterparts,
make them more effective and efficient.
Each ant generates a complete tour by choosing the cities according to a probabilistic
state rule. Mathematically, the probability with which ant k in city r chooses to move to the city
s is [22]:
  r r −i 
α

  ∑ [ γ .τ( i , s )] .[η( r, s)]

β

  i =1  if s ∈ J k ( r )
  α

Pk ( r, s) =   r

 v∈∑ 
[ ]
  ∑ γ r −i .τ(i, v)  .[η( r , v)] β

(6)
J k ( r )   i =1  

 0 otherwise

where τ is the pheromone, η is the visibility which is the inverse of the distance δ(r,s),
Jk(r) is the set of cities that remain to be visited by ant k positioned on city r , α and β are two
coefficients which make the pheromone information or the visibility information more
important with respect to one another and the parameter γ > 0 determines the relative
influence of pheromone values corresponding to earlier decisions, preceding places in the
permutation.
A value γ = l results in unweighted summation evaluation, every τir , i ≤ r is given the
same influence. A value γ < 1 (γ > 1) gives pheromone values corresponding to earlier
decisions less (respectively more) influence.
The best solutions found so far and in the current generation are used to update the
pheromone information. However, before that, some portion of pheromone is evaporated
according to:
τrs = (1 − ρ) τrs (7)
Where ρ is the evaporation rate with 0 ≤ ρ < 1 and (1-ρ) is the trail persistence. The
reason for this is that old pheromone should not have too strong an influence on the future.
Let τrs(t) be the intensity of trail on edge (r,s) at time t. Each ant at time t chooses the
next city, where it will be at time t+1. Therefore, after each cycle, after each ant has
determined a tour, the pheromone trail is updated using the founded solutions according to the
following formula:
m
τ rs ( t + n ) = ρ ⋅ τrs ( t ) + ∑ ∆τ(rsk ) (8)
K =1

where ∆τ rs( k ) is the contribution of the ant k to the pheromone trial between cities r and s.

Usually,

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 Leonardo Journal of Sciences Issue 14, January-June 2009
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 Q0
 if (r , s) ∈ to the tour of ant k
∆τ(rsk ) =  Lk (9)
 0 otherwise
where Q0 is a constant related to the amount of pheromone laid by ants and Lk is the tour
length of the k-th ant.
The process is then iterated and the algorithm runs until some stopping criterion is
met, a certain number of generations have been done or the average quality of the solution
found by the ants of a generation has not changed for several generations.

ACO Applied on Optimal Power Flow

Our objective is to minimize the objective function of the OPF defined by (2), using
into account the equality constraint (4), and the inequality constraint (5). The cost function
implemented in ACO is defined as:
ng
Fi ( Pg i ) = ∑ (a i + b i Pg i + c i Pg i2 ) ; Pgi
min
≤ Pgi ≤ Pgimax; i = 1, ng (10)
i =1
The search of the optimal parameters set is performed using into account a part of the
equality constraints (4) which present the active power transmission losses (PL) to be deal
with in feasible region.
The search of the optimal control vector is performed which present the system
transmission losses (PL). These losses can be approximated in terms of B-coefficients as [23]:
−1
 ∂P 
Pf =  1 − L  (11)
 ∂Pg 
These losses are represented as a penalty vector given by:
ng ng
PL = ∑∑ Pg i ⋅ Bij ⋅ Pg j (12)
i =1 j=1

The transmission loss of a power System PL can be calculated by the B-Coefficients

method [24] and given by:
PL = Pg T ⋅ B ⋅ Pg + Pg T ⋅ B0 + B00 (13)
T
where Pg is a ng-dimensional column vector of the generator power of the units, Pg is the
associate matrix of Pg, B is an ng×ng coefficients matrix, B0 is an ng-dimensional coefficient
column vector and B00 is a coefficient.
Our objective is to search (Pg) set in their admissible limits to achieve the
optimization problem of OPF. At initialization phase, (Pg) is selected randomly
between Pg imin and Pg imax .

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 Ant Colony Optimization Applied on Combinatorial Problem for Optimal Power Flow Solution
Brahim GASBAOUI and Boumediène ALLAOUA

The use of penalty functions in many OPF solutions techniques to handle inequality
constraints can lead to convergence problem due to the distortion of the solution surface. In
this method only the active power of generators are used in the cost function. And the
inequality constraints are scheduled in the load flow process. Because the essence of this idea
is that the constraints are partitioned in two types of constraints, active constraints are checked
using the ACO-OPF procedure and the reactive constraints are updating using an efficient
Newton-Raphson Load flow procedure.
After the search goal is achieved, or an allowable generation is attained by the ACO
algorithm. It is required to performing a load flow solution in order to make fine adjustments
on the optimum values obtained from the ACO-OPF procedure. This will provide updated
voltages, angles and transformer taps and points out generators having exceeded reactive
limits. To determining ail reactive power of ail generators and to determine active power that
it should be given by the slack generator using into account the deferent reactive constraints.
Examples of reactive constraints are the min and the max reactive rate of the generators buses
and the min and max of the voltage levels of all buses. All these require a fast and robust load
flow program with best convergence properties. The developed load flow process is based
upon the full Newton-Raphson algorithm using the optimal multiplier technique [25, 26].
There are few parameters that to be set for the ant algorithm; these parameters are: ρ
the evaporation rate, m the numbers of ants in the colony, α and β two coefficients. In the OPF
case these values were obtained by a preliminary optimization phase, in which we found that
the experimental optimal values of the parameters were largely independent of the problem.
The initial pheromone τ0 is given by τ0 = (ng·L)-1 where L is the tour length produced by the
nearest neighbor heuristic. The number of ants used is m=20. Regarding their initial
positioning, ants are placed randomly, with at most one ant in each generator unit.
A local improvement method suggested by Johnson & McGeoch [27] called the
restricted 3-opt method has been adapted for use in the ACO. It involves successive arc-
exchanges in an attempt to improve a candidate solution. But we choose a limited number of
exchanges in order to avoid over-long computation times. The local search is applied once the
solution is built and the results of this phase are used to update the pheromone trails.
The Ant Colony Algorithm
Step1 Initialize:
Set t=0 {t is the time counter};

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 Leonardo Journal of Sciences Issue 14, January-June 2009
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For every path (i,j) set an initial value τij (t) and set ∆τij (t,t+n)= 0;
Place bi(t) ants on every bus i {bi(t) is the number of ants on bus i at time t}.
Set s=1 {s is the tabu list index};
For i=1 to n do;
For k=1 to bi(t) do;
tabuk (s)= i {starting bus is the first element of the tabu list of the k-th ant}.
Step2 Repeat until tabu list is full {this step will be repeated (n-1) times}
Set s=s+1;
For i=1 to n do {for every bus};
For k=1 to bi(t) do {for every k-th ant on bus i still not moved};
Choose the bus j to move to, with probability p ij (t)
 [τ ] .[η ]
ij
α
ij
β

 if j ∈ J k
Pij ( t ) =  ∑ [τ ] .[η ] im
α
im
β

 m∈ J k
0 otherwise

Move the k-th ant to j {this instruction creates the new values bj (t+1)}
Insert bus j in tabu k (s).
Step3 For k=1 to m do {for every ant}
Compute Lk {it results from the tabu list}
For s=1 to n-1 do {scan the tabu list of the k-th ant}
Set (h,l)=(tabuk (s),tabuk (s+1))
{[h, l] is the edge connecting bus s and s+1 in the tabu list of ant k}
Q
∆τ h ,l ( t + n ) = ∆τhl ( t + n ) +
Lk
LK: represent the length crossed by the K-th ant.
Q: represent the amount of pheromone laid by the K-th ant.
Step4 For every edge (i,j) compute τij(t+n)
Set t=t+n
For every path (i,j) set ∆τij(t,t+n)=0.
Step5 Memorize the shortest path found up to now
If (NC < NCMAX ) or (not all the ants choose the same tour) {NC is the
number of algorithm cycles in NC cycles are tested NCm tours} then;
Empty all tabu lists

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 Ant Colony Optimization Applied on Combinatorial Problem for Optimal Power Flow Solution
Brahim GASBAOUI and Boumediène ALLAOUA

Set s=1
For i=1 to n do
For k=1 to bi(t) do
tabuk (s)=i {after a tour the k-th ant is again in the initial position}
Goto step 2
else
Print shortest tour and Stop.

Application Study, Results and Discussion

The ACO-OPF is coded in MATLAB environment version7.6 (R2008a), and run

using an Intel Pentium 4, core duo 1.87 GHz PC with 2 Go DDRAM-II- and 2 Mo cache
memory. All computations use real float point precision without rounding or truncating
values. More than 6 small-sized test cases were used to demonstrate the performance of the
proposed algorithm. Consistently acceptable results were observed.
The ACO-OPF method has been applied on the network test IEEE 57 buses that
represent a portion of the American electric power system (the Midwestern, USA) for
December 1961. This electric network is constituted of 57 buses and 7 generators (at the
buses Nº: 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9 and 12) injecting their powers for a system nourishing 42 loads
through 80 lines of transportation (Show in Fig 1). The base voltage for every bus is of 135
kV. Table 1 show the coefficients of the quadratic functions of cost and the limits min and
max of the actives powers, the technical and economic parameters of the seven generators of
the IEEE 57-bus electrical network.

Table 1: Generators parameters of the IEEE 57-bus Electrical Network

Pg imin Pg imax a b c
Bus Number [$/hr] [$/MWhr] [$/MW 2
hr]
[MW] [MW]
Bus 1 0.00 575.88 0.20 0.30 0.01
Bus 2 0.00 100.00 0.20 0.30 0.01
Bus 3 0.00 140.00 0.20 0.30 0.01
Bus 6 0.00 100.00 0.20 0.30 0.01
Bus 8 0.00 550.00 0.20 0.30 0.01
Bus 9 0.00 100.00 0.20 0.30 0.01
Bus 12 0.00 410.00 0.20 0.30 0.01

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 Leonardo Journal of Sciences Issue 14, January-June 2009
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2 1

17
3 15
16

4 45 14

5 44 46 13
II 12
18
49
19 38
20
48
26 21 37
6 47

27
39

22
28 57
23
29 56
24
II 36 40
42
25 35
7
50
34 33
30
52 31 32
10
51
11
53
43
54
41
55

8 9

Figure 1. Topology of the IEEE 57-bus

Does have end to prove that the set of the three parameters of the colony of ants β, ρ
and q0 is extensively independent of the problem of optimization to solve, we applied ACO-
OPF on the network IEEE test 57 buses while using the 10 better combinations of the three
parameters β, ρ and q0 and that give the best results for commercial traveler problem for the
case of 30 cities [28]. The (Table 2) shows the values of actives powers, the losses of powers
and the cost of fuel for the 10 ensemble wholes of parameters. We observe that all results are
very near of the optimum. The average value of the cost for the 10 cases is the order of
3173.3126 $/h. The value min of the cost is 3172.202 $/h corresponds a (β = 10, ρ = 0.6 and
q0 = 0.3) with losses of powers 17.04 MWS. Therefore we remark that even the most distant
cost value is acceptable since it is on the one hand moves away of the value min with only
0.056% and on the other hand the value of the losses corresponds has this value that is 17.04
MWS is better than the one corresponds at the value min with a report of 5.399%.

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 Ant Colony Optimization Applied on Combinatorial Problem for Optimal Power Flow Solution
Brahim GASBAOUI and Boumediène ALLAOUA

Table 2: Results of the ACO-OPF for the 10 ensemble wholes of parameters β, ρ and q0 for
the IEEE 57-bus Electrical Network
β = 10 β = 11 β = 9.5 β = 10 β = 12
Results ρ = 0.6 ρ = 0.5 ρ = 0.8 ρ = 0.6 ρ = 0.5
q0= 0.0 q0= 0.1 q0= 0.1 q0= 0.3 q0= 0.3
Pg1 [MW] 252.89 249.74 241.44 242.89 252.74
Pg2 [MW] 87.88 95.02 90.01 95.05 98.82
Pg3 [MW] 132.89 129.68 138.01 138.89 139.60
Pg6 [MW] 91.84 93.54 99.00 97.87 93.30
Pg8 [MW] 321.72 329.72 321.09 311.02 310.72
Pg9 [MW] 95.94 92.00 95.71 97.84 99.00
Pg12 [MW] 286.70 280.28 282.62 285.10 276.28
Power Loss [MW] 19.0600 19.1800 17.0800 17.9600 19.6600
Generation cost [$/hr] 3173.012 3173.106 3172.995 3172.202 3173.220
β =9 β = 11 β = 10 β=6 β = 11
Results ρ = 0.4 ρ = 0.8 ρ = 0.8 ρ = 0.3 ρ = 0.4
q0 q0 q0 q0 q0
= 0.4 = 0.0 = 0.6 = 0.7 = 0.4
Pg1 [MW] 249.72 259.11 252.56 254.37 258.21
Pg2 [MW] 97.57 93.20 92.40 89.54 88.99
Pg3 [MW] 137.85 135.98 136.98 131.85 130.98
Pg6 [MW] 97.81 99.00 98.30 95.81 95.08
Pg8 [MW] 311.09 300.09 315.72 320.04 320.28
Pg9 [MW] 97.71 99.61 99.03 98.78 95.71
Pg12 [MW] 278.62 282.62 272.85 280.62 281.62
Power Loss [MW] 19.5699 18.8099 17.0400 20.2099 20.0699
Generation cost [$/hr] 3173.654 3173.007 3174.010 3173.995 3173.925
Results deliberate by ACO-OPF that corresponds at ensemble (β = 10, ρ = 0.6 and q0
= 0.3) are compare with those find by the QN method using the formula Update of BFGS and
iterated with load flow of Newton Raphson (NR). The QN method uses a vector of penalty
associates with the vector of controls Pgi. The values of the penalty coefficients are based on
the formula of the B-coefficients losses. The use of the penalty functions that serves has keep
the reactive powers of PV-bus in their admissible limits can produce problems of convergence
that are practically has the distortion of the solution surface.
The constraints of security are also verified for the angles and the amplitudes of
tensions, the levels of voltage (Per Unit) for the IEEE 57-bus Electrical Network are drawn in
the Fig. 2. In ACO-OPF, we not make recourse for functions of penalty being given that only
the actives powers of the generators are used in the selective function and the reactive powers
are planned in the process of load flow. The essential of this idea is that the constraints are
shared in two types: the active constraints that are verified by the procedure of ACO whereas

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the reactive constraints are update while using a procedure efficient of load flow by Newton-
Raphson.
The results gotten including the generated cost and the losses of powers are compare
with those acquired by the QN approved method and present on the Table 3.

Table 3: Comparison of the results gotten by ACO-OPF and QN-OPF on the IEEE 57-bus
Electrical Network
Min Max QN-OPF ACO-OPF
Results
limit limit
Pg1 [MW] 0.00 575.88 275.41 242.89
Pg2 [MW] 0.00 100.00 98.95 95.05
Pg3 [MW] 0.00 140.00 137.75 138.89
Pg6 [MW] 0.00 100.00 99.27 97.87
Pg8 [MW] 0.00 550.00 289.97 311.02
Pg9 [MW] 0.00 100.00 99.05 97.84
Pg12 [MW] 0.00 410.00 267.56 285.10
Power Loss [MW] 17.16 17.9600
Generation cost [$/hr] 3175. 506 3172.202

1.06

1.04

1.02
Voltage [PU]

0.98

0.96

0.94
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
N° of Bus

Figure 2. The levels of voltage (Per Unit) for the IEEE 57-bus Electrical Network

The ACO-OPF method is also compared with the evolutionary methods of the
references [29]. The publication Younes M., Rahli M. and Koridak L.A. [29] present the
optimal power flow based on hybrid genetic algorithm. A comparison between the generate
active powers calculated by the ACO and the evolutionary methods as well as the costs, the
losses of active power and the time of convergence has been illustrated in the Table 4.

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Brahim GASBAOUI and Boumediène ALLAOUA

Table 4: Comparison of the ACO-OPF with different evolutionary methods of optimization

viewpoint cost, losses and times of convergence
Min Max GA-OPF ACO-OPF
Results
limit limit [29]
Pg1 [MW] 0.00 575.88 266.850 242.89
Pg2 [MW] 0.00 100.00 100.000 95.05
Pg3 [MW] 0.00 140.00 140.000 138.89
Pg6 [MW] 0.00 100.00 100.000 97.87
Pg8 [MW] 0.00 550.00 280.438 311.02
Pg9 [MW] 0.00 100.00 100.000 97.84
Pg12 [MW] 0.00 410.00 281.875 285.10
Power Loss [MW] 3171.785 3172.202
Generation cost [$/hr] 18.40 17.96
Time [Sec] 97.75 61.07

It is important to note that the gotten results are similar those given by the
evolutionary programming. Since the difference between the cost values resulting from the
ACO-OPF only defers of the GA-OPF by a rate of 0.08% and of the EP-OPF by a rate of
0.013%. The value of the losses found by ACO-OPF that is of 17.96 MWS is lower than the
one found with GA-OPF by a rate of 1.85% and higher of the one of the EP-OPF by a rate of
2.449%. We add that the ACO-OPF is important to underline that the computer time for our
method is better than the two other evolutionary methods.

Conclusions

In this paper, a novel ant colony optimization based approach to OPF problem has
been presented. The proposed approach utilizes the global and local exploration capabilities
of ACO to search for the optimal settings of the control variables. Different objective
functions have been considered to minimize the fuel cost, to improve the voltage profile, and
to enhance voltage stability. The proposed approach has been tested and examined with
different objectives to demonstrate its effectiveness and robustness. The results using the
proposed approach were compared to those reported in the literature. The results confirm the
potential of the proposed approach and show its effectiveness and superiority over the
classical techniques and genetic algorithms.

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 Leonardo Journal of Sciences Issue 14, January-June 2009
ISSN 1583-0233 p. 1-17

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 Ant Colony Optimization Applied on Combinatorial Problem for Optimal Power Flow Solution
Brahim GASBAOUI and Boumediène ALLAOUA

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