Firefly Algorithm Optimized Load Frequency Controller for Multi-Source Power System

A novel Load Frequency Controller optimized by Firefly algorithm is proposed for a Distributed Generation (DG) penetrated power system. To meet the increased power, renewable energy such as solar PV systems, wind power based power generation is used. As renewable sources are all fluctuating in nature, maintaining the nominal frequency value in every area becomes a major challenge to the power system engineers. Along with this, the variation of the tie line power is also a major problem. The main objective of the Load Frequency Control (LFC) is to diminish the transient deviancies in the area frequency and the tie-line power and make the steady-state error almost zero. LFC is essential to ensure power quality and reliability. New approaches of LFC are required to meet the need of DG penetrated complex system. Hence, a new approach on the LFC of the normal interrelated power system with some renewable energy-based power generation is done. Firefly algorithm is adapted for the parameter tuning of the Proportional Integral Controller (PI) in LFC. The various test cases are considered by varying load and source. In all the test case considered the dominance of the suggested controller is revealed by relating the result with PI and Fuzzy based PI controller.