This paper investigates the performance of a hybrid algorithm developed by hybridization between Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and self-adaptive improved fast evolutionary programming (IFEP) techniques for solving economic load dispatch (ELD) problem with non-smooth cost curves where conventional gradient based methods are inapplicable. The reported excellent performance of both IFEP and PSO techniques in solving ELD problems has encouraged us in hybridizing them in the effort of enhancing the convergence capability of IFEP with PSO intelligence. The performance of the hybrid algorithm is demonstrated on a power system with 15 units and comparison is drawn in between CEP-PSO’ and IFEP-PSO’ in terms of the solution quality and computational efficiency. The simulation results show that IFEP-PSO’ method is more efficient in finding higher quality solutions in non-convex ELD problems.