A novel modified Cheetah Optimizer for designing fractional-order PID-LFC placed in multi-interconnected system with renewable generation units

Establishing robust electrical interconnections between nations is a pivotal foundation for significant investments and addressing energy shortfalls in regions grappling with generational challenges. However, developing electrical load disruptions within interconnected systems can lead to substantial variations in frequencies and energy transmission. Load Frequency Control (LFC) is a crucial mechanism to mitigate these disruptions and ensure stable operations in interconnected regions. While meta-heuristics have been employed for LFC design, some techniques face challenges like early convergence and poor accuracy due to a lack of population diversity. In this study, a novel Modified Cheetah Optimizer (mCO) is proposed to optimize the parameters of LFC system, incorporating fractional-order proportional integral derivative (FOPID) controllers within multi-interconnected system with renewable energy integration. The mCO integrates learning-from-experience and random contraction strategies to enhance convergence accuracy and overcome local optima, demonstrating superior efficiency in solving optimization problems. The proposed mCO is evaluated by solving twelve functions from the CEC2022 test suite, showcasing its effectiveness. The optimization problem involves minimizing the Integral Time Absolute Error (ITAE) of the area control error, considering changes in frequencies and exchanged power, with controller parameters ${\lambda }_d$, $k_d$, $k_i$, $k_p$, and $\mu$ to be identified. Two interconnected systems, photovoltaic (PV)-thermal and thermal-wind turbine (WT)-thermal-PV, are assessed under various load disturbances. The mCO is compared with other methods, including Modified Hunger Games Search Optimizer (MHGS), Driving Training-Based Optimizer (DTBO), Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO), Aquila Optimal Search (AOS), and Cheetah Optimizer (CO). In the case of PV-thermal linked system, the proposed mCO succeeded in mitigating the ITAE by 19.21% compared to the reported MHGS and 8.63% compared to the conventional CO. In the four interconnected systems, the suggested approach reduced the ITAE by 89.21% and 15.26% compared to the reported MHGS and conventional CO, respectively. This confirmed the efficacy of FOPID-LFC, which was designed using the proposed mCO in all examined scenarios.