Gravitational Search Algorithm Based Automatic Load Frequency Control for Multi-Area Interconnected Power System

Demand and frequency deviation is gaining more popularity in power system research especially with multiple power systems interconnections and operations as a result of the complexity of power system network, network upgrade and renewable energy sources integration. However, stability of the power system with respect to momentarily fault of Load Frequency Control (LFC) models, in terms of time taken for the fault to settle, magnitude of overshoot and Steady-State Error (SSE) margin, still remain a challenge to the various proposed LFC designs for power system stability. This paper proposes an intelligent demand and frequency variations controller for a four-area interconnected power system using Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA) optimisation technique. Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controller and Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA) were integrated and implemented on the interconnected power system. The optimised GSA-PID controller demonstrated robustness and superiority with time taken for the instability to settle and maximum overshoot in all the four areas as compared to results with Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) PID controller and conventional PID controller under 1% and 5% load perturbation. The settling time in all the areas produced tremendous results with GSA-PID controller compared to the results of PSO-PID and conventional PID, the performance of GSA-PID controller shows better dynamic responses with superior damping, less overshoot, minimum oscillations and shorter transient duration.