This paper presents a newly developed optimization algorithm, the Bee Optimization Algorithm (BeeOA), to solve the economic power dispatch (EPD) problem. The authors have developed a derivative free and global optimization technique based on the working of the honey bee. The economic power dispatch problem is a nonlinear constrained optimization problem. Classical optimization techniques fail to provide a global solution and evolutionary algorithms provide only a good enough solution. The proposed approach has been examined and tested on two test systems with different objectives. A simple power dispatch problem is tested first on 6 generators and then the algorithm is demonstrated on 13 thermal unit systems whose incremental fuel cost function takes into account the value point loading effect. The results are promising and show the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed approach over recently reported methods.