A Novel Grey Wolf Optimizer Based Load Frequency Controller for Renewable Energy Sources Integrated Thermal Power Systems

Abstract

The frequency value should be kept constant to ensure and maintain synchronization in power systems. When the balance between generation and load is interrupted, the frequency value increases or decreases. This frequency deviation may lead to serious problems in the power system. Therefore, a design of a controller is required to keep the system frequency and tie-line power variations within specified limits, which is called automatic generation control (AGC) or load frequency control (LFC). This paper aims to determine the optimal controller parameters used in the LFC for a two-area non-reheat thermal power system integrated with various renewable energy sources (RES) such as photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy systems. The proposed controller is a PI–(1 + DD) controller which is a combination of proportional, integral, and double derivative controllers. The optimal gains of the proposed controller are determined by the Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO) algorithm. Moreover, the performance of the PI–(1 + DD) controller is tested under various scenarios such as different step load perturbations, random load changes, system parameters and RES variation. The results show that the PI–(1 + DD) controller provides an improvement of about 40% in system frequency overshoot and about 45% in settling time compared to other controllers.

Keywords:

• automatic generation control
• Grey Wolf Optimization
• load frequency control
• PI–(1 + DD) controller
• renewable energy sources
• thermal power system
• PV system
• wind energy system
• heuristic techniques

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ozay Can

Ozay Can received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical-Electronics Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering, Duzce University, Duzce, Turkey. He studies load frequency control (LFC) on Ph.D. and is currently a lecturer with the Department of Electronics and Automation, Technical Sciences Vocational School, Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, Rize, Turkey. His research interests include power system control, optimization, and renewable energy systems.

Ali Ozturk

Ali Ozturk received the B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey, in 1996 and M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical-Electronics Engineering from Sakarya University, Sakarya, Turkey, in 2001 and 2007, respectively. His Ph.D. research work is focused on the voltage stability in power systems. He is currently a Professor with the Department of Electrical-Electronics Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Duzce University. His research interests include genetic algorithm, power system control, optimization, PV energy.

Hasan Eroğlu

Hasan Eroğlu received the B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical-Electronics Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering, Selcuk University, Konya, Turkey, in 2007, 2009, and 2014, respectively. He is currently an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical-Electronics Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Architecture, Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, Rize, Turkey. He has many studies on electrical engineering, optimization of energy transmission lines, renewable energy systems, geographic information systems, energy quality and decision support systems.

Hossam Kotb

Hossam Kotb received the B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt, in 2009, 2013, and 2020, respectively. His Ph.D. research work is focused on the performance enhancement of renewable energy conversion systems. He is currently an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical Power and Machines, Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University. He is a reviewer for many international journals. His research interests include power system control, optimization, electrical drives, modern control techniques, smart grids, and renewable energy systems.