**Zhong-kai Feng 1, Shuai Liu 1, Wen-jing Niu 2,\*, Zhi-qiang Jiang 1, Bin Luo <sup>3</sup> and Shu-min Miao <sup>4</sup>**


Received: 27 August 2019; Accepted: 28 September 2019; Published: 29 September 2019

**Abstract:** In this research, a novel enhanced gravitational search algorithm (EGSA) is proposed to resolve the multi-objective optimization model, considering the power generation of a hydropower enterprise and the peak operation requirement of a power system. In the proposed method, the standard gravity search algorithm (GSA) was chosen as the fundamental execution framework; the opposition learning strategy was adopted to increase the convergence speed of the swarm; the mutation search strategy was chosen to enhance the individual diversity; the elastic-ball modification strategy was used to promote the solution feasibility. Additionally, a practical constraint handling technique was introduced to improve the quality of the obtained agents, while the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution method (TOPSIS) was used for the multi-objective decision. The numerical tests of twelve benchmark functions showed that the EGSA method could produce better results than several existing evolutionary algorithms. Then, the hydropower system located on the Wu River of China was chosen to test the engineering practicality of the proposed method. The results showed that the EGSA method could obtain satisfying scheduling schemes in different cases. Hence, an effective optimization method was provided for the multi-objective operation of hydropower system.

**Keywords:** cascade hydropower reservoirs; multi-objective optimization; TOPSIS; gravitational search algorithm; opposition learning; partial mutation; elastic-ball modification
