Generators Maintenance Scheduling Using Music - Inspired Harmony Search Algorithm

This work explores the potential of Music-Inspired Harmony Search (MIHS), meta-heuristic technique, in the area of power system for Generator Maintenance Scheduling (GMS). MIHS has been used to generate optimal preventive maintenance schedule for generators to maintain reliable and economical power system operation taking into account the maintenance window, load and crew constraints. The robustness of the algorithm has been evaluated for five different case studies: 8-units test system, 13-units test system, 21-units test system, 62-units test system, and 136-units test system of Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) Pakistan. As per previous practice, WAPDA used to use manual scheduling based on hit-and-trial. The simulations have been carried out in MATLAB®. Based on its comparison with Genetic Algorithm (GA), it has been found that MIHS has fast convergence rate and optimal schedule for all the test systems satisfying the stated constraints. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-2086-5.ch015