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Hybridization of meta-heuristic algorithms plays a major role in the optimization problem. In this paper, a new hybrid meta-heuristic algorithm called hybrid pathfinder algorithm (HPFA) is proposed to solve the optimal reactive power dispatch (ORPD) problem. The superiority of the Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm is the fast convergence speed, a mutation operator in the DE algorithm incorporates into the pathfinder algorithm (PFA). The main objective of this research is to minimize the real power losses and subject to equality and inequality constraints. The HPFA is used to find optimal control variables such as generator voltage magnitude, transformer tap settings and capacitor banks. The proposed HPFA is implemented through several simulation cases on the IEEE 118-bus system and IEEE 300-bus power system. Results show the superiority of the proposed algorithm with good quality of optimal solutions over existing optimization techniques, and hence confirm its potential to solve the ORPD problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The optimal power flow (OPF) problem featured as a non-linear, non-convex, large-scale and constrained, still remains a popular and challenging work in power systems optimization. Although various optimization algorithms have been devoted to solving this problem, they suffer from some weak points such as insufficient accuracy as well as most of them are unconstrained optimization algorithms that result in optimal solutions that violate certain security operational constraints. To this end, this paper presents an adaptive constraint differential evolution (ACDE) algorithm, in which the novelty lies primarily in these three points: i) the crossover rate (CR) sorting mechanism is employed to build the relationship of CR and individual fitness values; ii) reusing successful evolution direction is proposed to guide the individual evolution towards promising regions; iii) an advanced constraint handling technique named superiority of feasible solutions (SF) is introduced to effectively deal with constraints in power systems. In order to verify the performance of the presented approach to the OPF problem, the standard IEEE-30 bus system is selected as the test case, in which six optimization objectives including total fuel cost, total fuel cost considering the valve-point effect, real active power losses, voltage deviation, voltage stability and emission are studied. The experimental results demonstrate that the presented approach can provide the smaller cost (800.41132$/h), reducing by up to 3.76% compared to the MPIO-COSR. In terms of the emission, ACDE emits the least emissions (0.204817ton/h). In addition, the proposed method also obtains the best results on the real active power losses (3.084041 MW) and voltage deviation (0.085636p.u.) when compared with other state-of-the-art methods. • Crossover rate sorting mechanism is used to improve the performance of adaptive differential evolution. • Reusing successful evolution direction strategy is proposed. • Constraints in OPF are effectively handled through superiority of feasible solutions. • The proposed algorithm can be an effective alternative for constraint OPF problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]