A hybrid PSO-ABC algorithm for optimal load shedding and improving voltage stability

In this paper, a hybrid method is proposed for reducing the amount of load shedding and voltage collapse. The hybrid method is the combination of particle swarm optimisation (PSO) algorithm and artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm. Both algorithms equally contribute in the paper to determine the optimal load shed values for improving the voltage stability of the power system. Here, PSO is used to determine the weak buses in the system whereas ABC computes the optimal amount of load shed value to be cut for voltage stability purpose. They work on different fitness functions as per the requirements of their purpose. The appropriate buses for load shedding are selected based on the sensitivity of minimum eigenvalue of load flow Jacobian with respect to the load shed. The proposed method based on PSO and ABC is implemented in MATLAB working platform and its performance is tested with six bus and IEEE 14 bus bench mark test systems. From the simulations, the performance of the proposed method is analysed and compared with various techniques in terms of sensitivity of minimum eigenvalues, voltage profile and load power. Through comparison performance, it is showed that the proposed method ensures voltage stability with minimum load shedding.