Generation Expansion Planning (GEP) is one of the most important decision-making activities in electric utilities. Least-cost GEP is to determine the minimum-cost capacity addition plan (i.e., the type and number of candidate plants) that meets forecasted demand within a pre specified reliability criterion over a planning horizon. In this paper, Differential Evolution (DE), and Opposition-based Differential Evolution (ODE) algorithms have been applied to the GEP problem. The original GEP problem has been modified by incorporating Virtual Mapping Procedure (VMP). The GEP problem of a synthetic test systems for 6-year, 14-year and 24-year planning horizons having five types of candidate units have been considered. The results have been compared with Dynamic Programming (DP) method. The ODE performs well and converges faster than DE.