The aim of the current paper is to present a mimetic algorithm called the chaotic evolutionary programming Powell’s pattern search (CEPPS) algorithm for the solution of the multi-fuel economic load dispatch problem. In the CEPPS algorithm, the exploration process is maintained by chaotic evolutionary programming, whereas exploitation is taken care off by a pattern search. The proposed CEPPS has two variants based on the Gauss map and the tent map. Seven generalized benchmark test functions and six cases of the multi-fuel economic load dispatch problem are considered for the performance analysis. It is observed from the analysis that the CEPPS solution procedure based on the tent map exhibits superiority to obtain an excellent solution and better convergence characteristics than traditional chaotic evolutionary programming. Further, the performance investigation for the considered economic load dispatch shows that the Gauss map CEPPS solution procedure performs better than the tent map based CEPPS to obtain the solution of the multi-fuel economic dispatch problem.