A Multitasking Electric Power Dispatch Approach with Multi-Objective Multifactorial Optimization Algorithm

Electric power dispatch issue mainly consists of two optimization tasks: active and reactive power dispatches, each of which is a non-linear multi-objective optimization problem with a series of constraints. Traditional evolutionary algorithms are focused on single-task optimization for active or reactive power dispatch and they are not able to deal with several (single- or multi-objective) optimization tasks simultaneously. In this paper, to solve this problem, a multitasking electric power dispatch approach is proposed by introducing the multi-objective multifactorial optimization (MO-MFO) algorithm and integrating it with the characteristics of power system. The approach exhibits the great potential to be developed as a cloud-computing solver or platform for future large-scale smart grid applications involving different market entities because of its implicit parallel computation mechanism. The multitasking approach is thoroughly tested and benchmarked with IEEE-30-bus and IEEE-118-bus standard systems and exhibits generally better performances as compared to previously proposed Pareto heuristic approaches for electric power dispatch.