390 Int. J. Logistics Economics and Globalisation, Vol. 2, No. 4, 2010 Copyright © 2010 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Application of simulated annealing and genetic algorithm for solving optimum power flow problems H. Vennila* Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Noorul Islam University, Kumarakoil, 629180, India E-mail: vennilarajesh@yahoo.co.in T. Ruban Deva Prakash Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Noorul Islam University, Kumarakoil, 629180, India E-mail: mahiruban@yahoo.com B.G. Malini*, M.S. Birundha*, L. Sumi and V. Evangelin Jeba Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Noorul Islam College of Engineering, Kumarakoil, 629180, India E-mail: bmalini34@yahoo.com E-mail: birundha001@gmail.com E-mail: sumilliard@gmail.com E-mail: vevangelin@gmail.com *Corresponding authors Abstract: Well established conventional algorithms are available for solving the optimum power flow (OPF) problem. But the recent trend is to use the tools such as genetic algorithms (GAs) evolutionary programming technique, etc., because of some of their superior qualities. Simulated annealing (SA) is one such tool which can be used for solving optimisation problems. In this paper, SA technique has been applied for solving OPF problem which is simultaneously composed by economic dispatch (ED) and load flow problems (LFP). This technique is compared with GA, which represents a class of general purpose stochastic search techniques which simulate natural inheritance by genetics, illustrated by considering a three bus system. Keywords: simulated annealing; SA; optimum power flow; OPF; economic dispatch; ED; load flow problem; LFP; genetic algorithm; GA. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Vennila, H., Prakash, T.R.D., Malini, B.G., Birundha, M.S., Sumi, L. and Jeba, V.E. (2010) ‘Application of simulated annealing and genetic algorithm for solving optimum power flow problems’, Int. J. Logistics Economics and Globalisation, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp.390–402.