Abstract: This paper describes and uses an ant colony meta-heuristic optimization method to solve the redundancy optimization problem. This problem is known as total investment-cost minimization of series-parallel power system configuration. Redundant components are included to achieve a desired level of availability. System availability is represented by a multi-state availability function. The power systems components are characterized by their performance (capacity), availability and cost. These components are chosen among a list of products available on the market. The proposed meta-heuristic seeks to the best minimal cost power system configuration with desired availability. To estimate the series-parallel power system availabiliti, a fast method based on universal moment generating function (UMGF) is suggested. The ant colony approach is used as an optimization technique. An example of electrical power system is presented.
Keywords: Power engineering, ant colony, redundancy optimization, multi-state systems, universal generating function (UMGF).