LOAD FREQUENCY CONTROL (Single Area)-:

Basically, single area power system consists of a governor, a turbine,

and a generator wi1th feedback of regulation constant. System also
includes step load change input to the generator.This work mainly,
related with the controller unit of a single area power system.
The load frequency control strategies have been suggested based on
the conventional linear Control theory.These controllers may be
unsuitable in some operating conditions due to the complexity of the
power systems such as nonlinear load characteristics and variable
operating points. However, this method needs some information for
system states, which are very difficult to know completely. Also, the
growing needs of complex and huge modern power systems require
optimal and flexible operation of them. The dynamic and static
properties of the system must be well known to design an efficient
controller.
Under normal operating condition controller are set for small changes
in load demand without voltage and frequency exceeding the
prespecified limits. If the operating condition changes by any cause,
the controller must be reset either manually or automatically. The
objective of load freuency controller is to exert the control off
frequency and at the same time real power exchange via outgoing
transmission line.
 Block Diagram Load frequency control in single area power system

The frequency issensed by frequency sensor. The change in frequency and tie
line real power can be measured by change in rotor angle δ. The load
frequency controller amplify and transform error signal, i.e., (Δfi and ΔP tie) in
to real power command signal ΔPci which is sent to the prime mover via
governor (that control the valve mechanism) .To call for an increment or
decrement in torque the prime mover balances the output of governor which will
compensate the value of error signal that is Δfi and ΔPtie. The process continues
till deviation in form of Δfi and ΔPtie as well as the specified tolerance.

The LFC problem in power systems has a long history. In a power system,
LFC as an ancillary service acquires an important and fundamental role to
maintain the electrical system reliability at an adequate level. It has gained
the importance with the change of power system structure and the growth of
size and complexity of interconnected systems. The well known conventional
LFC structure for a given control area And a multi area power system is
shown in fig..
Conventional LFC Structure
The LFC model given in Fig. 1.3 uses three simple (first order) transfer
functions for modeling the turbine, generator and power system (load and rotating
mass). The effects of local load changes and interface with other areas are
properly considered as two input signals. Each control area monitors its own
tie-line power flow and frequency at the area control center. The area
control error (ACE) which is a linear combination of tie-line and frequency
errors is computed and allocated to the controller K(s). Finally, the resulted
control action signal or a percentage of it is applied to the turbine-governor unit.
The operation objectives of the LFC are summarized to maintain system
frequency close to nominal value, to control the tie-line interchange
schedules, and to divide the load between generator units. Commonly, a
simple integral or proportional-integral control law is used as controller K(s)
to perform LFC task. A multi-area power system is comprised of areas
that are interconnected by high-voltage transmission lines or tie-lines. The
trend of frequency measured in each control area is an indicator of the trend
of mismatch power in the interconnection and not in the control area alone.
Therefore, following a load disturbance within a control area or an occurred
mismatch power on tie-lines, the frequency of that control area experiences a
transient change. The feedback mechanism comes into play and generates the
appropriate signal to the turbine for tracking the load variation and
compensates the mismatch power.

Depending on the type of generating units, and constraints on their range and rate
of response to the LFC signals, the actual response time (for example for a steam
unit) takes a few to several tens of seconds. In LFC practice, rapidly varying
components of system signals are almost unobservable due to filters involved in
the process. That is why further reduction in the response time of LFC is neither
possible nor desired. Practically, the design and performance of an LFC
system highly dependent on how generation units respond to control signal.
Such control strategies are useful as they are able to maintain a sufficient level of
reserved control range and a sufficient level of control rate. In light of this
fact, although the present dissertation uses some academic examples (and
data) in which the assumed parameters (and in result, dynamics of the
simplified models) are not completely matched to real ones, and gives the
impression that the output of the models can be changed quickly, however
the proposed control strategies are flexible enough to set a desired level of
performance to cover the practical constraint on the control action signals.
Since the 1970s, the described LFC scheme in Fig. 1.3 is widely used by
researchers for the LFC analysis and synthesis.The performance of the automatic
generation control depends upon how various power generating units respond
to these signals. The speed of their response is limited by natural time lags
of the various turbine dynamics and the power system itself. In other words
the design of automatic generation controller depends upon various energy
source dynamics involved in the

AGC of the area. But in real situations each control area may have large
number of various sources of power generation such as hydro, thermal, gas,
nuclear etc. The various generations are connected by a stiff network that is why
the frequency deviations are assumed to be equal in an area. The load over a
day varies which is evident from a daily load curve. Therefore the
contributions of generations from various sources in an area are adjusted to
meet the load variations. The performance of the Automatic Generation Control
may also vary in respect to the changes in the share of different type of power
generations to the total generation of the area. In order to obtain the optimum
realistic AGC performance, the automatic generation controller parameters
have to be optimized for various nominal loading conditions. In practice, it
is not necessary that all types of power generating units having speed
governors may take part in the area AGC activity. Due to the lower power
production cost a typical generation in an area may be contributing to its
maximum by running at its rated load capacity while others may not be. In
such case the typical generation is regulated by the speed governor alone but
its dynamics will also play a role in the selection of the automatic
generation controller parameters for other generations in the area. Large scale
power systems are normally composed of control areas or regions
representing coherent group of generators

Need of Load Frequency Control

The active and reactive power demands are never steady and they continuously
changes with the rising or falling trend of load demand. There is a change in
frequency with the change in load which causes problems such as:

1. Most AC motors run at speeds that are directly related to frequency. The
speed and induced electro motive force (e.m.f) may vary because of the change of
frequency of the power circuit.

2. When operating at frequencies below 49.5 Hz; some types of steam

turbines, certain rotor states undergo excessive vibration.

3. The change in frequency can cause mal operation of power converters by

producing harmonics.

4.For power stations running in parallel it is necessary that frequency of the

network must remain constant for synchronization of generators.

Concept of Load Frequency Control

In the steady state operation of power system, the load demand is increased or
decreased in the form of Kinetic Energy stored in generator prime mover set,
which results the variation of speed and frequency accordingly. Therefore,
the control of load frequency is essential to have safe operation of the power
system.

Moreover, frequency is also a major stability criterion for large -scale

stability in multi area power systems. To provide the stability, a constant
frequency is required which depends on active power balance. If any change
occurs in active power demand/ generation in power systems, frequency cannot
be hold as its rated value. Hence, oscillations increase in both power and
frequency. Thus, the system is subjected to a serious instability problem. To
improve the stability of the power networks, it is necessary to design load
frequency control (LFC) systems that control the power generation and active
power at tie lines of interconnected system. In interconnected power networks
with two or more areas, the generation within each area has to be controlled to
maintain the scheduled power interchange. Load frequency control scheme has two
main control loops. These are primary control and secondary control loops. This
action has been realized by using a turbine-governor system in the plant.
Primary and secondary control
In the primary control action, only active power is balanced. However,
maintaining the frequency at scheduled value (e.g. 50 Hz) cannot be provided.
Therefore, steady state frequency error can occur forever and control action
is not enough for interconnected system. In interconnected power systems,
frequency must be equal at all areas at nominal value. The second level of
generation control is called secondary or supplementary control. This secondary
control is in large power systems which include two or more areas of
interconnected power system. Active power is controlled at the tie line
between neighboring areas of central and local load control along with
distribution center. In modern large inter-connected systems, manual regulation
is not feasible so automatic generation and voltage regulation equipment is
installed in each Generator. The proportional integral (PI) controllers do the
regulation by taking care of small changes in load demand without frequency and
voltage exceeding the prescribed limit.

The schematic diagram of load frequency and excitation voltage regulators

of a turbo generator is shown in Fig.1.4. The controllers are set for a particular
operating condition and they take care of small changes in load demand
without frequency and voltage exceeding the prescribed limits. With the passage
of time, as the change in active load demand becomes large, the controllers must
be reset either manually or automatically.The small changes in active power is
dependent on internal machine angle δ and is independent of bus voltage;
while bus voltage depends on machine excitation (therefore on reactive
generation Q) and is independent of machine angle δ. Change in the angle δ is
caused by momentary change in generator speed. Therefore load frequency and
excitation voltage controls are not interactive for small changes and can
be modeled and analyzed independently. Furthermore, excitation voltage
control is fast acting in which the major time constant encountered is
that of a generator field; whilethe power frequency control is slow acting
with major time constant contributed by the turbine and generator moment of
inertia. This time constant is much larger than that of the generator field. Thus the
transients in excitation voltage control vanish much faster and do not affect the
dynamics of power frequency control. Change in load demand can be identified as:

1.Slow varying changes in mean value of load demand.

2.Fast random variations around the mean value of load demand. The
regulators must be designed to be insensitive to fast random changes otherwise
the system will be prone to hunting resulting in excessive wear and tear of rotating
machines and control equipment .

TURBINE SPEED GOVERNING SYSTEM

1. Fly ball speed governor: This is the heart of the system which senses the
change in speed (frequency). As the speed increases the fly balls move
outwards and the point B on linkage mechanism moves downwards. The
reverse happens when the speed decreases.
2. Hydraulic amplifier: It comprises a pilot valve and main piston Low power
level pilot valve movement is converted into high power level piston valve
movement. This is necessary in order to open or close the steam valve against
high pressure steam.
3. Linkage mechanism: ABC is a rigid link pivoted at B and CDE is another
rigid link pivoted at This link mechanism provides a movement to the control
valve in proportion to change in speed. It also provides a feedback from the
steam valve movement.
 4. Speed changer: It provides a steady state power output setting for the
turbine. Its downward movement opens the upper pilot valve so that more
steam is admitted to the turbine under steady conditions (hence more steady
power output). The reverse happens for upward movement of speed changer.

Model of Speed Governing System

Assume that the system is initially operating under steady conditions—the linkage
mechanism stationary and pilot valve closed, steam valve opened by a definite
magnitude, turbine running at constant speed with turbine power output balancing
the generator load. Let the operating conditions be characterized by

We shall obtain a linear incremental model around these operating conditions. Let
the point A on the linkage mechanism be moved downwards by a small amount
ΔyA. It is a command which causes the turbine power output to change and can
therefore be written as

where ΔPC is the commanded increase in power.The command signal ΔPC (i.e.
ΔyE) sets into motion a sequence of events—the pilot valve moves upwards, high
pressure oil flows on to the top of the main piston moving it downwards; the steam
valve opening consequently increases, the turbine generator speed increases, i.e.
the frequency goes up. Let us model these events mathematically.Two factors
contribute to the movement of C

.
The movement ΔyD depending upon its sign opens one of the ports of the pilot
valve admitting high pressure oil into the cylinder thereby moving the main piston
and opening the steam valve by ΔyE. Certain justifiable simplifying assumptions,
which can be made at this stage, are:

• Inertial reaction forces of main piston and steam valve are negligible
compared to the forces exerted on the piston by high pressure oil.
• Because of (i) above, the rate of oil admitted to the cylinder is proportional
to port opening ΔyD.

The volume of oil admitted to the cylinder is thus proportional to the time integral
of ΔyD,. The movement ΔyE is obtained by dividing the oil volume by the area of
the cross-section of the piston. Thus

It can be verified from the schematic diagram that a positive movement ΔyD causes
negative (upward) movement ΔyE accounting for the negative sign used in Eq.
(8.4).

Taking the Laplace transform of Eqs. (8.2), (8.3) and (8.4), we get
Eliminating ΔYC(s) and ΔYD(s), we can write

Where

Equation (8.8) is represented in the form of a block diagram in Fig. 8.3.

The speed governing system of a hydro-turbine is more involved. An additional

feedback loop provides temporary droop compensation to prevent instability. This
is necessitated by the large inertia of the penstock gate which regulates the rate of
water input to the turbine. Modelling of a hydro-turbine regulating system is
beyond the scope of this book.
Turbine Model
Let us now relate the dynamic response of a steam turbine in terms of changes in
power output to changes in steam valve opening ΔyE. Figure 8.4a shows a two
stage steam turbine with a reheat unit. The dynamic response is largely influenced
by two factors, (i) entrained steam between the inlet steam valve and first stage of
the turbine, (ii) the storage action in the reheater which causes the output of the
low pressure stage to lag behind that of the high pressure stage. Thus, the turbine
transfer function is characterized by two time constants. For ease of analysis it will
be assumed here that the turbine can be modelled to have a single equivalent time
constant. Figure 8.4b shows the transfer function model of a steam turbine.
Typically the time constant Tt lies in the range 0.2 to 2.5 sec.

Generator Load Model

The increment in power input to the generator-load system is

where ΔPG = ΔPt incremental turbine power output (assuming generator

incremental loss to be negligible) and ΔPD is the load increment.

This increment in power input to the system is accounted for in two ways:
 • Rate of increase of stored kinetic energy in the generator rotor. At scheduled
frequency (f° ), the stored energy is

where Pr is the kW rating of the turbo-generator and H is defined as its inertia

constant.

The kinetic energy being proportional to square of speed (frequency), the

kinetic energy at a frequency of (f°+Δf) is given by

Rate of change of kinetic energy is therefore

• As the frequency changes, the motor load changes being sensitive to speed,
the rate of change of load with respect to frequency, i.e. δP D/δf can be
regarded as nearly constant for small changes in frequency Δf and can be
expressed as

where the constant B can be determined empirically. B is positive for a

predominantly motor load.

Writing the power balance equation, we have

Dividing throughout by Pr and rearranging, we get

Taking the Laplace transform, we can write ΔF(s) as

Where

Equation (8.13) can be represented in block diagram form as in Fig. 8.5.

Complete Block Diagram Representation of Load Frequency Control of an

Isolated Power System

A complete block diagram representation of an isolated power system comprising

turbine, generator, governor and load is easily obtained by combining the block
diagrams of individual components, i.e. by combining Figs. 8.3, 8.4 and 8.5. The
complete block diagram with feedback loop is shown in Fig. 8.6.
Steady States Analysis
The model of Fig. 8.6 shows that there are two important incremental inputs to the
load frequency control system -ΔPC, the change in speed changer setting; and ΔPD,
the change in load demand. Let us consider a simple situation in which the speed
changer has a fixed setting (i.e. ΔPC = 0) and the load demand changes. This is
known as free governor operation. For such an operation the steady change in
system frequency for a sudden change in load demand by an amount

is obtained as follows:
While the gain Kt is fixed for the turbine and Kps is fixed for the power system, Ksg,
the speed governor gain is easily adjustable by changing lengths of various links.
Let it be assumed for simplicity that Ksg is so adjusted that

It is also recognized that Kps = 1/B, where B = δPD/δf / Pr (in pu MW/unit

change in frequency). Now

The above equation gives the steady state changes in frequency caused by changes
in load demand. Speed regulation R is naturally so adjusted that changes in
frequency are small (of the order of 5% from no load to full load). Therefore, the
 linear incremental relation (8.16) can be applied from no load to full load. With
this understanding, Fig. 8.7 shows the linear relationship between frequency and
load for free governor operation with speed changer set to give a scheduled
frequency of 100% at full load. The ‘droop’ or slope of this relationship is

Coordination Between LFC And Economic Dispatch

Both the load frequency control and the economic dispatch issue commands to change the
power setting of each turbine-governor unit. At a first glance it may seem that these two
commands can be conflicting. This however is not true. A typical automatic generation
control strategy is shown in Fig. 5.5 in which both the objective are coordinated. First we
compute the area control error. A share of this ACE, proportional to αi , is allocated to
each of the turbine-generator unit of an area. Also the share of unit- i , γi X Σ( PDK - Pk ),
for the deviation of total generation from actual generation is computed. Also the error
between the economic power setting and actual power setting of unit- i is computed. All
these signals are then combined and passed through a proportional gain Ki to obtain the
turbine-governor control signal.

Fig. 5.5 Automatic generation control of unit-i.

Load frequency Control and Economic Dispatch Control:
Load frequency Control and Economic Dispatch Control – Load frequency control
with integral controller achieves zero steady state frequency error and a fast
dynamic response, but it exercises no control over the relative loadings of various
generating stations (i.e. economic dispatch) of the control area. For example, if a
sudden small increase in load (say, 1%) occurs in the control area, the load
frequency control changes the speed changer settings of the governors of all
generating units of the area so that, together, these units match the load and the
frequency returns to the scheduled value (this action takes place in a few seconds).

However, in the process of this change the loadings of various generating units
change in a manner independent of economic loading considerations. In fact, some
units in the process may even get overloaded. Some control over loading of
individual units can be exercised by adjusting the gain factors (Ki) included in the
signal representing integral of the area control error as fed to individual units.
However, this is not satisfactory.
A satisfactory solution is achieved by using independent controls for load
frequency and economic dispatch. While the load frequency controller is a fast
acting control (a few seconds), and regulates the system around an operating point;
the economic dispatch controller is a slow acting control, which adjusts the speed
changer setting every minute (or half a minute) in accordance with a command
signal generated by the central economic dispatch computer.

Figure 8.12 gives the schematic diagram of both these controls for two typical
units of a control area. The signal to change the speed changer setting is
constructed in accordance with economic dispatch error, [PG (desired) — PG
(actual)], suitably modified by the signal representing integral ACE at that instant
of time. The signal PG (desired) is computed by the central economic dispatch
computer (CEDC) and is transmitted to the local economic dispatch controller
(EDC) installed at each station. The system thus operates with economic dispatch
error only for very short periods of time before it is readjusted.
LOAD MANAGEMENT-:
Load management, also known as demand side management (DSM), is the process
of balancing the supply of electricity on the network with the electrical load by
adjusting or controlling the load rather than the power station output. This can be
achieved by direct intervention of the utility in real time, by the use of frequency
sensitive relays triggering the circuit breakers, by time clocks, or by using special
tariffs to influence consumer behavior. Load management allows utilities to reduce
demand for electricity during peak usage times which can, in turn, reduce costs by
eliminating the need for peaking power plants. In addition, some peaking power
plants can take more than an hour to bring on-line which makes load management
even more critical should a plant go off-line unexpectedly for example. Load
management can also help reduce harmful emissions, since peaking plants or
backup generators are often dirtier and less efficient than base load power plants.
New load-management technologies are constantly under development — both by
private industry and public entities

ADVANTAGE AND OPERATING PRINCIPLE-:

Since electrical energy is a form of energy that cannot be effectively stored in bulk,
it must be generated, distributed, and consumed immediately. When the load on a
system approaches the maximum generating capacity, network operators must
either find additional supplies of energy or find ways to curtail the load, hence load
management. If they are unsuccessful, the system will become unstable and
blackouts can occur.

Long-term load management planning may begin by building sophisticated models

to describe the physical properties of the distribution network as well as the load
behavior. The analysis may include scenarios that account for weather forecasts,
the predicted impact of proposed load-shed commands, estimated time-to-repair
for off-line equipment, and other factors.

The utilization of load management can help a power plant achieve a higher
capacity factor, a measure of average capacity utilization. Capacity factor is a
measure of the output of a power plant compared to the maximum output it could
produce. Capacity factor is often defined as the ratio of average load to capacity or
the ratio of average load to peak load in a period of time. A higher load factor is
advantageous because a power plant may be less efficient at low load factors, a
high load factor means fixed costs are spread over more kWh of output and a
higher load factor means greater total output. If the power load factor is affected by
non-availability of fuel, maintenance shut-down, unplanned breakdown, or reduced
demand the generation has to be adjusted, since grid energy storage is often
prohibitively expensive.

Smaller utilities that buy power instead of generating their own find that they can
also benefit by installing a load control system. The penalties they must pay to the
energy provider for peak usage can be significantly reduced. Many report that a
load control system can pay for itself in a single season.

Two Area Interconnected Power system-:

In case of an interconnected power system having two or more areas
connected through tie lines, each area supplies its control area and tie lines
allowelectric power to flow among the areas. However, a load perturbation in
any of theareas affects output frequencies of all the areas as well as the power
flow on tie lines.Hence the control system of each area needs information
about transient situation inall the other areas to restore the nominal values of
area frequencies and tie line powers. The information about each area is
found in its output frequency and the information about other areas is in the
deviation of tie line powers. For two area interconnected power system, this
information is taken as BiΔfi + ΔPtie (i = 1, 2), where B = tie line frequency
bias, f = nominal frequency and Ptie = tie line power.This is called as the area
control error (ACE) and the same is fed as input to the integral controller of
corresponding area. Thus, an AGC scheme for an interconnected power
system basically incorporates suitable control system, which can bring the
area frequencies and tie line powers back to nominal or very close to nominal
values effectively after the load perturbations. Following are the basic
operating principles of an interconnection of power systems.

1.Under normal operating conditions, each control area should strive to carry
its own load, except such scheduled portions of the other members’ loads as
have been mutually agreed upon.
2.Each control area must agree upon adopting regulating and control
strategies and equipment that are mutually beneficial under both normal and
abnormal situations.
An interconnected power system is divided into control areas connected by a
tie line.In each control area, all generators are supposed to constitute a
coherent group. A two-area interconnected power system of a thermal plant
shown in Figure 1.7 is used to explain the motivation of the proposed
method. It is assumed that large loads with sudden changes, such as large
steel mills, arc furnace factories, magnetic levitation transporters and testing
plants for nuclear fusions etc., have been placed in both areas.The frequency
deviation in both areas severely affects the production quality of frequency
sensitive industries such as the spinning and weaving industry, petrochemical
industry, pulp and paper industry, semiconductor industry, etc. Furthermore,
the lifetime of machine apparatuses on the load side will be reduced. The tie-
line power flow and frequency of the area are affected by the load changes.
Therefore, it can be considered that each area needs its system frequency and
tie-line power flow to be controlled. An interconnected power system may
consist of any number of subsystems or areas. The model of two area
interconnected power system is shown below in figure 1.7.
REQUIREMENT OF CONTROL STRATEGY-:

Practically all power systems today are tied together with neighbouring areas
and the problem of automatic generation control becomes a joint undertaking.
The following are the basic requirements needed for the control strategy by
the suitable and advance controllers:

1.The system frequency control is obtained through a closed loop. Frequency

deviation due to a step-load change should return to zero. The controller that
offers above is called isochronous control. In addition the controller should
keep the magnitude of the transient frequency deviation to a minimum.

2.The frequency error should not exceed a certain maximum value.

3.Tie line power flow at their scheduled values.

4.To maintain system frequency and tie line power flow during normal
period and also when the system is subjected to small step load perturbations.

CONVENTIONAL CONTROLLER
Several types of conventional controller are used to in AGC for controlling
the frequency as well as tie line power flow in interconnected power system.
In this research work, the PI and PID control technique has been used for
AGC in interconnected power systems.

PROPORTIONAL & INTEGRAL CONTROLLER

In a large scale power system, automatic generation control is responsible to
area load changes and abnormal imprecise system operating parameters
essentially means very fast minimization of area frequency deviations and
mutual tie line power flow deviations of the areas for satisfactory and stable
operation of the system. Fixed linear feedback PI controller provides good
control performance over a nominaloperating condition. The PI controller
was the most popular controller of this century because of its remarkable
effectiveness, simplicity of implementation and broad applicability. This
controller used to remove steady state error between input and output.

PROPORTIONAL INTEGRAL & DERIVATIVE CONTROLLER

In some cases, the operators have to record various indications for use in day-
to-day operation of the facility. The information recorded helps the operator
evaluate the current condition of the system and take the appropriate actions
if the conditions are not as expected. Requiring the operator to take all of the
required corrective actions is impractical, or sometimes impossible,
especially if a large number of indications must be monitored. For this
reason, most systems are controlled automatically once they are operating
under normal conditions. Automatic controls greatly reduce the burden on the
operator and make his job manageable. Proportional Integral Derivative
(PID) controller provides a generic and efficient solution to real world control
problems. Due to its simplicity, excellent and optimal performance in many
applications, PID controllers are used in more than 95% of closed-loop
industrial processes. This controller reduced the maximum peak overshoot,
and then settling time automatic reduced. Then number of oscillation will less
and disturbances will also less. After that dynamic response of the system
will be good. This controller is mainly used to minimize error.
INTELLIGENT CONTROLLER
Intelligent control techniques are of great help in implementation of AGC in
power systems. Today’s power systems are more complex and require
operation in uncertain and less structured environment. Consequently, secure,
economic and stable operation of a power system requires improved and
innovative methods of control. Intelligent control techniques provide a high
adaption to changing conditions and have ability to make decisions quickly
by processing imprecise information. Some of these techniques are rule based
logic programing, model based reasoning, computational approaches like
fuzzy sets, artificial neural networks. In this research work, the fuzzy logic
control technique has been used for AGC of interconnected power systems.

FUZZY LOGIC CONTROLLER-:

Fuzzy logic is a type of multi valued logic. It deals with approximate

reasoning rather than precise. Fuzzy logic derived from fuzzy set theory. It
was first proposed by Lotfi Zadeh in 1965 and has currently used in control
theory, artificial intelligence system specially to control complex, aircraft
engines and control surfaces helicopter control, missile guidance, automatic
transmission, wheel slip control, autofocus cameras, and washing machines,
railway engines for smoother drives and fuel consumption and many
industrial processes. The fuzzy logic is closer in spirit to human thinking and
natural language than conventional logical systems. This provides a means of
converting a linguistic control strategy based on expert knowledge into an
automatic control strategy. The ability of fuzzy logic to handle imprecise and
inconsistent real-world data made it suitable for a wide variety of
applications. In particular, the methodology of the fuzzy logic controller
(FLC) appears very useful when the processes are too complex for analysis
by conventional quantitative techniques or when the available sources of
information are interpreted qualitatively, inexactly, or with uncertainty. Thus
fuzzy logic control may be viewed as a step toward a rapprochement between
conventional precise mathematical control and human like decision making.
Fuzzy controllers are very simple conceptually. They consist of an input
stage, a processing stage, and an output stage. The input stage maps sensor or
other inputs, such as switches, thumbwheels, and so on, to the appropriate
membership functions and truth values. The processing stage invokes each
appropriate rule and generates a result for each, then combines the results of
the rules. Finally, the output stage converts the combined result back into a
specific control output value. The most common shape of membership
functions is triangular, although trapezoids and bell curves are also used, but
the shape is generally less important than the number of curves and their
placement. From three to seven curves are generally appropriate to
cover the required range of an input value.

EVOLUTIONARY CONTROLLER

Evolutionary controller is the collective name for a range of problem-solving

techniques based on principles of biological evolution, which are being
increasingly applied to a variety of problems, ranging from practical
applications in industry and commerce to leading-edge scientific research.
Evolutionary technique is a subfield of artificial intelligence that involves
combinatorial optimization problems. Evolutionary technique uses iterative
progress, such as growth or development in a population. This population is
then selected in a guided random search using parallel processing to achieve
the desired end. Such processes are often inspired by biological mechanisms
of evolution.Evolutionary algorithms are now used to solve multi-
dimensional problems more efficiently with software produced by human
designers, by using to optimization to design the systems. There is a several
evolutionary techniques like Ant colony optimization, fire fly algorithm,
particle swarm optimization, genetic algorithm etc. In this research work, the
genetic algorithm technique has been used for AGC of interconnected power
systems.

HYDROTHERMAL SCHEDULING IN POWER SYSTEM

Optimal scheduling of power plant generation is the determination of the

generation for every generating unit such that the total system generation
cost is minimum while satisfying the system constraints. The objective of
the hydrothermal scheduling problem is to determine the water releases
from each reservoir of the hydro system at each stage such that the
operation cost is minimized along the planning period. The operation cost
includes fuel costs for the thermal units, import costs from neighboring
systems and penalties for load shedding. The basic question in
hydrothermal co-ordination is to find a trade-off between a relative gain
associated with immediate hydro generation and the expectation of future
benefits coming from storage (Huang Chen and Chang 1996).
Classification of Hydrothermal Scheduling Problem
1. Long range problem
2. Short range problem

Long Range Problem

Long range problem includes the yearly cyclic nature of reservoir water
inflows and seasonal load demand and correspondingly a scheduling
period of one year is used. The solution of the long range problem
considers the dynamics of head variations through the water flow continuity
equation. The co-ordination of the operation of hydroelectric plants
involves, of course, the scheduling of water releases. The long-range
hydro-scheduling problem involves the long-range forecasting of water
availability and the scheduling of reservoir water releases for an interval of
time that depends on the reservoir rcapacities. Typical long-range
scheduling goes anywhere from 1 week to 1 year or several years. For
hydro schemes with a capacity of impounding water over several seasons,
the long-range problem involves meteorological and statistical analysis.
The purpose of the long-term scheduling is to provide a good feasible
solution that is close to the long-term cost minimization of the whole
system. The problem is usually very difficult to solve due to its size, the
time span and the randomness of the water inflows over the long term.
Long-range scheduling involves optimizing a policy in the context of
unknowns such as load, hydraulic inflows and unit availabilities. These
unknowns are treated statistically and long-range scheduling involves
optimization of statistical variables.

Short Range Problem

The load demand on the power system exhibits cyclic variation over
a day or a week and the scheduling interval is either a day or a week. As
the scheduling interval of short range problem is small, the solution of the
short-range problem can assume the head to be fairly constant. The
amount of water to be utilized for the short-range scheduling problem is
known from the solution of the long-range scheduling problem. Short-range
hydro-scheduling (1 day to 1 week) involves the hour-by-hour scheduling of
all generation on a system to achieve minimum production cost for the
given time period.
The short term hydrothermal scheduling problem is classified into
two groups
1. Fixed head hydro thermal scheduling
2. Variable head hydro thermal scheduling