Multi-strategy ensemble biogeography-based optimization for economic dispatch problems

•New method to solve convex and non-convex economic dispatch problems using MsEBBO.•MsEBBO is able to balance the global exploration and the local exploitation.•Considering valve-point effects, ramp rate limits, prohibited operating zones.•An effective repair technique for handling different constraints is proposed.•The sensitivity of MsEBBO to variations in population size is investigated. Economic dispatch (ED) is an important task in power system operation. It is able to decrease the operating cost, save energy resources, and reduce environmental load. In this paper, a multi-strategy ensemble biogeography-based optimization (MsEBBO) based method for ED problems is proposed. BBO is a population-based meta-heuristic algorithm inspired by the science of biogeography and mainly consists of three components: migration model, migration operator, and mutation operator. It has good local exploitation ability but lacks satisfactory global exploration ability. To keep a proper balance between exploration and exploitation, MsEBBO has three extensions to BBO’s three components according to the no free lunch theorem. First, a nonlinear migration model based on sinusoidal curve is employed. Second, a backup migration operator through adopting a backup strategy to combine perturb operator and blended operator is presented. This operator can make the entire population fully exchange or share information and thus further strengthen the exploitation ability. Finally, both differential mutation and Lévy local search are embedded as mutation operator for MsEBBO using a similar backup strategy. Gaining from this mutation operator, MsEBBO can be accelerated to escape from local optima and perform efficient search within global range. Additionally, an effective repair technique is proposed to handle different constraints of ED problems. The performance of MsEBBO is tested on four ED problems with diverse complexities. Experimental results and comparisons with other recently reported ED solution methods confirm that MsEBBO is capable of yielding a good balance between exploration and exploitation, and obtaining competitive solution quality. Moreover, the sensitivity of MsEBBO to variations in population size is investigated as well.