Conventional optimal active power dispatch research generally does not consider the influence of small-signal stability. When the operation condition is stressed, the optimal results, although is economical, might not meet the small-signal security requirement. The optimal active power dispatch with small-signal stability constraints is investigated. Based on the conventional active power dispatch model, an optimal active power dispatch model constrained by small-signal stability is built in order to ensure that the optimization result meets the given small-signal stability criterion. The successive linear programming(SLP)method is suggested to solve the problem. The proposed method is validated on a 4-generator test system and the New England 39-bus system.