Frequency Control Strategy for Grid-tied Virtual Power Plant Using SSA-tuned Fractional Order PID Controller

Abstract

This paper investigates the frequency control strategy of the Virtual Power Plant (VPP), with the structure of an independent control area that includes diverse Distributed Energy Resources. The proposed VPP system comprises generating units such as Solar PV, Archimedes Wave Energy Conversion, Biodiesel driven Generator, and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle, which are interconnected to conventional thermal power plant. Centralized control strategy is adopted for frequency control studies, by considering the communication time delays. Fractional order Proportional Integral Derivative (FOPID), Proportional Integral Derivative (PID), and Proportional Integral (PI) controllers are employed to perform the control action on generating units to perform the frequency control. Tuning of the controllers is done using optimization algorithms such as Particle Swarm Optimization, Firefly Algorithm, Grasshopper Optimization Algorithm, Ant Lion Optimizer, Sine Cosine Algorithm, and Salp Swarm Algorithm (SSA). By comparative analysis, SSA algorithm is proved to outperform the other algorithms in terms of minimizing the objective function of Integral of Squared Error of the deviations in system frequencies and tie-line power. The system is also investigated under various scenarios of generation and load disturbances to study the comparative performance of the FOPID controller over PID and PI controllers. Results prove the superiority of SSA-tuned FOPID controller over PID and PI controllers in terms of providing better system responses. Sensitivity test has been conducted on the system without resetting nominal controller gain values and the proposed SSA-tuned FOPID controller is proved to be robust against the uncertainties in the load and parameters of our system.

KEYWORDS:

• Automatic load frequency control
• Biodiesel generator
• Communication time delay
• Fractional order PID controller
• Ocean wave energy conversion
• Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle
• Salp swarm algorithm
• Solar PV
• Virtual power plant

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Abishek R

Abishek R received the BE degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Government College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu in 2019. Currently, he is pursuing his MTech degree in power and energy systems engineering from the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Silchar, Assam. His research interests include distributed generation, modeling and control of renewable energy systems, virtual power plant and load frequency control. Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

Dulal Chandra Das

Dulal Chandra Das received his PhD degree in electrical engineering from the National Institute of Technology Silchar, Assam in 2014. Currently, he is working as an assistant professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Silchar, Assam. His research interests are demand side management, renewable energy technologies, energy storage devices and application of soft computing techniques in renewable-based hybrid energy systems for its operation and control. Email: [email protected]

Ashtabhuj Kumar Srivastava

Ashtabhuj Kumar Srivastava received the BTech degree in electrical and electronics engineering from IMS Engineering College, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh in 2016. He received MTech degree in power and energy systems engineering from the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Silchar, Assam in 2021. Currently, he is pursuing PhD degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttarakhand. His area of research includes Solar energy, microgrid, and renewable energy systems. Email: [email protected]

Abdul Latif

Abdul Latif received the BTech degree in electrical engineering from Aliah University, in 2014. He received the MTech degree in electrical engineering from the National Institute of Technology Agartala in 2016 and completed PhD degree in electrical engineering from the Department of Electrical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Silchar in 2021. Currently, he is working as a post doctoral research associate at Khalifa University, UAE. His research interests include modeling and control of frequency response renewable microgrid system, automatic power-frequency management, frequency response virtual power plant, and smart grid. Email: [email protected]