Nowadays, there is a growing interest in the microgrid systems with a high penetration of renewable sources. In this paper, the modified harmony search (MHS) algorithm is proposed to solve the combined economic emission dispatch (CEED) problem of the microgrid taking into account the solar and wind power cost functions. The proposed algorithm can be derived by not only adjusting the parameters but also improving the structure and operation of the original harmony search (HS) algorithm. The solution of the CEED problem of the microgrid taking into account the solar and wind power cost functions is obtained for different scenarios using the MHS algorithm and some recently published algorithms. The results of all scenarios show the effectiveness of the MHS algorithm over other published algorithms employing-same-data. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.