Abstract This study presents a computational approach to compute locational marginal price (LMP) at distributed generation (DG) buses in an electric power distribution system using self-adaptive levy flight based JAYA algorithm and proportional nucleolus theory (PNT). This method provides financial incentive to DG owners based on their contribution in reliability improvement, loss and emission reduction. In this study expected energy not supplied (EENS) is used for measuring the reliability of a given radial distribution network. This method is implemented on 38 bus distribution system under MATLAB environment to compute LMP values at each DG as per its contribution towards reliability improvement, loss reduction and emission reduction. It is found from the study that reliability has been improved, losses and emissions of system were reduced by providing proper financial incentives to DG owners. The proposed method can be utilized by a distribution company (DISCO) to operate network optimally and to estimate state of network.