Combined heat and power dispatch with reserve constraints using a mutated trochoid searching optimizer

This paper presents an Improved Trochoid Searching Optimizer (ITSO) to effectively handle the Combined Heat and Power Economic Dispatch (CHPED). Additionally, reserve limitations are incorporated, guaranteeing adequate reserve capacity to handle unexpected contingencies/abrupt demand fluctuations. Rather than imposing a uniform limit on all units, the presented methodology addresses a more practical approach by prioritizing fast-ramping units while allowing baseload generators to run at full capacity for better efficiency. The proposed ITSO incorporates Cauchy-distributed mutation and quadratic interpolation strategies for enhanced exploration and exploitation capabilities, evaluated on a 7-unit test system with various reserve considerations. The ITSO outperforms the standard TSO and other algorithms in terms of fuel cost and efficiency. It achieves a minimum fuel cost of 10,091.9 $/h at high loading levels while TSO achieves 10,094.2 $/h. When addressing reserve limits, the ITSO consistently displayed greater efficiency, providing cost savings of 0.1–0.5 % across various reserve percentages.