Abstract
In this paper, cuckoo optimization algorithm is implemented to solve energy production cost minimization in a combined heat and power (CHP) generation system. This problem is also known as combined heat and power economic dispatch problem, which looks for optimal values of power and heat generation of each CHP unit to minimize the total production cost. Cuckoo optimization algorithm is a new metaheuristic algorithm. It is inspired by the life of a bird family, called cuckoo, that special lifestyle of these birds and their characteristics in egg laying and breeding has been the basicmotivation for development of this algorithm. Unlike of the some previous approaches, the effect of valve point is considered in the cost function and clearly formulated in the conventional polynomial cost function as absolute sinusoidal term. The proposed method is applied to three small (with three different test cases), medium, and large test systems in order to evaluate its efficiency and feasibility. The obtained results demonstrated a higher quality solution and superior performance of the proposed cuckoo optimization algorithm method in comparison with many existing methodologies.