This paper presents the performances of meta heuristic search algorithms in solving short-term hydro thermal scheduling problems. Meta heuristic search algorithms like GA, CEP, FEP, IFEP and PSO have been developed for hydrothermal scheduling problems. The performances of the algorithms are demonstrated on a test case. It has been observed that all the algorithms are capable of finding very nearly global solutions within a reasonable time but PSO algorithm was found to be the most efficient amongst them in terms of convergence rate, solution time and success rate