Whale Optimization Algorithm Optimized Fuzzy-PID Plus PID Hybrid Controller for Frequency Regulation in Hybrid Power System

The proposition in this paper is the use of the whale optimization algorithm (WOA) for optimizing the novel Fuzzy-PID plus PID hybrid controller as used for frequency regulation in a hybrid power system (HPS) comprising a microgrid structure—a cluster of resources—reheat thermal power system, and STPS—the solar thermal power system. The proposed use of WOA technique for frequency regulation in HPS could be termed as a novel proposition at a time when not many articles have been reported in the literature around the use of WOA for the said purpose in such like systems. The relative supremacy of WOA over other recently proposed evolutionary optimization algorithms viz. multi-verse optimizer, grey wolf optimizer, grasshopper optimization algorithm, and differential evolution algorithm is proven via comparative analysis of the load frequency performance of the HPS with Fuzzy-PID plus PID hybrid controller, optimized using all of these algorithms, as the control strategy in the system. Besides, the paper also implements the conventional PI, PID and Fuzzy-PID controllers, optimized using WOA, with an objective of assessing the effectiveness of Fuzzy-PID plus PID hybrid controller as against these controllers. The study also assesses the robustness of the proposed control scheme against parametric variations in the range of ± 10%. The proposed WOA optimized Fuzzy-PID plus PID hybrid controller exhibits the best performance compared to other controllers which proves the efficacy of WOA in load frequency control studies.