Optimal Tuning of PID Controllers for LFC in Renewable Energy Source Integrated Power Systems Using an Improved PSO

The constant rise in energy demand and concerns about climate change have led to increased penetration of renewable energy sources (RES). Maintaining active power balance between generation and demand in power systems with significant penetration of these highly variable and intermittent renewable sources requires an efficient load frequency control (LFC) strategy. One such strategy that has gained the attention of researchers is optimal tuning of PID controllers of LFC using metaheuristic method.  This paper presents a PSO variant for optimal tuning of PID controllers for load frequency control of power system integrated with renewable energy resources. The proposed PID tuning technique is tested on a two-area power system commonly used in the literature. Seven scenarios have been used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed Load Frequency Control. For more realistic evaluation, governor dead band and communication time delays have been incorporated in the test system in one of the scenarios. Simulation results obtained when compared with those of three well-known PID-tuning metaheuristic algorithms produced shorter settling time and smaller frequency and tie line power deviations.