In this paper, we have designed an improved flower pollination algorithm to find the optimal solution for the economic load dispatch (ELD) problem. The solution to the ELD problem reduces the generation cost and power losses in the smart grid. In the proposed algorithm, we have considered a three-unit system. The performance analysis of the proposed algorithm is done based on generation cost and power losses. Further, it is compared with the popular optimization algorithm such as particle swarm optimization, genetic algorithm, and flower pollination algorithm. The evaluation results show that the proposed algorithm takes 3602.9 $/h generation cost and 9.3205 power losses which is far lesser than existing optimization algorithms.