This paper presents a new improved harmony search (IHS) algorithm to solve non-convex economic load dispatch problems in the power system. In the proposed IHS algorithm, multiple harmony memory consideration rates and dynamic pitch adjusting rate are used to generate a new harmony/solution vector with enhanced solution quality. The effectiveness of the proposed IHS algorithm has been successfully tested in the test systems which consists of six units with ramp rate limits, prohibited operating zones and transmission loss, thirteen units with valve point effect, and ten units with multiple fuel options and valve point effect. The results obtained using the proposed IHS algorithm are compared with the results of other techniques reported in the literature. The comparative results reveal that the proposed IHS algorithm has good searching capacity to find the global optimal solution, than the other methods reported in the literature and also has good convergence characteristic. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.