This paper proposes a novel method for solving the Non-convex Economic Dispatch (NED) problems, by the Fuzzy Adaptive Modified Particle Swarm Optimization (FAMPSO). Practical ED problems have non-smooth cost functions with equality and inequality constraints when generator valve-point loading effects are taken into account. Modern heuristic optimization techniques have been given much attention by many researchers due to their ability to find an almost global optimal solution for ED problems. PSO is one of modern heuristic algorithms, in which particles change place to get close to the best position and find the global minimum point. However, the classic PSO may converge to a local optimum solution and the performance of the PSO highly depends on the internal parameters. To overcome these drawbacks, in this paper, a new mutation is proposed to improve the global searching capability and prevent the convergence to local minima. Also, a fuzzy system is used to tune its parameters such as inertia weight and learning factors. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, it is applied to a system consisting of 13 and 40 thermal units whose fuel cost function is calculated by taking account of the effect of valve-point loading. Simulation results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed algorithm compared to other optimization algorithms presented in literature. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.