A Novel Salp Swarm Optimization Oriented 3-DOF-PIDA Controller Design for Automatic Voltage Regulator System

Voltage stability is critical in electrical power systems, and automatic voltage regulators play a crucial role in maintaining voltage levels within permissible limits. Due to their simplicity and effectiveness, traditional Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controllers have been widely used in automatic voltage regulation. However, they may not always perform optimally in complex power systems with varying operating conditions and external disturbances. This research introduces an integrated approach of employing a 3-degrees of freedom-PID-Acceleration (3-DOF-PIDA) controller coupled with a disturbance observer-based control strategy. This combination is embedded with a simple but effective salp swarm optimisation algorithm. This novel control approach of the combined 3-DOF-PIDA, disturbance observer and salp swarm optimisation will enhance the voltage regulation of the system. The proposed novel control strategy incorporates an acceleration component to continuously adjust its parameters based on system dynamics. Simultaneously, the disturbance observer is responsible for estimating and compensating for external disturbances, further improving the system’s performance. The salp swarm optimization is applied to optimize both the PIDA control parameters and the disturbance observer’s parameters in the automatic voltage regulation system to find optimal solutions that improve voltage regulation and disturbance rejection capabilities. The results are established by performing statistical and graphical analyses with time-varying step load fluctuations, and under various system parameter variations. The results are validated by comparisons to five popular optimization algorithms found in the reviewed literature. The investigations demonstrate that this new proposed approach provides outstanding performance, in the presence of substantial system parameter fluctuations and uncertainties.