2018 5th International Conference on Control, Decision
and Information Technologies (CoDIT’18)
New Intelligent AVR Controller Based on Particle Swarm
Optimization for Transient Stability Enhancement
A. BENSEDDIK, Student Member, IEEE, M. HASNI, M, MENAA, A. EL FERGOUGUI and M.
BOUDOUR, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract— In this work, we present a new intelligent control
scheme to enhance the transient stability of multi-machine power
system based on the generator automatic voltage regulation
system. The algorithm consists on the estimation of the best
parameters of voltage regulators to minimize an objective
function. Particle swarm optimization and genetic algorithm
methods are used to get the best performance of regulation
systems. The control performances damp significantly oscillations
and improve the stability of the system after a given disturbance
which enhance the transient stability and obtain a new improved
critical clearing time (CCT). The results are very promising and
could be validated in practice.
I. INTRODUCTION
Power system dynamic stability and control is a major topic
that has been carried out during the last two decades, in order
to solve power system dynamic issues following disturbances
in short and long terms. The number of disruptive events
increases respectively with the increase of power demand.
Many solutions were proposed to enhance power system
stability such as load shedding, area islanding, FACT’s devices
control, power system stabilizer, tripping control, fast valving
and LFC…etc. Recent researches are performed to design
intelligent control based on artificial intelligence, evolutionary
algorithms to deal with power system uncertainty. Several
control schemes are proposed in the literature, robust and
adaptive controls are the most adequate for dynamic system as
well as generator responses [1-12]. Such controls make the
system more reliable and resilient to various disturbances.
Reliability is the ability of the power system to deliver
electricity in the quantity and with the quality demanded by
users, it is generally measured by interruption indices [13].
Whereas, resilience is the new word used for system that can
deal with disruptive events and provide solutions
autonomously using the available devices and/or solutions
called self-healing. In [14], resilience is the capacity of system
to reduce magnitude and/or duration of events. Resilient
infrastructure efficiency depend on the ability to anticipate
absorb, adapt and/or fast recover from disruptive events. It is
well known that power system stabilizer is efficient to damp
small oscillations with adequate parameters; as well as efficient
to enhance transient stability. But Instead of using PSS, we
interest to making the regulator parameters more intelligent
and efficient to damp sever disturbances such as three phase
A. BENSEDDIK, M. HASNI, M. MENAA, A. EL FERGOUGUI and M.
BOUDOUR are with the Laboratory of Electrical Industrial Systems (LSEI).
University of Science and Technologies Houari Boumediene, Bab-Ezzouar
(USTHB),Algiers,Algeria,(Email:abenseddik@ieee.org;elfergougui_ahmed@
hotmail.com;hasnimourad2001@yahoo.fr;mmenaa@usthb.dz;mboudour@iee
e.org).
978-1-5386-5065-3/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE
Thessaloniki, Greece
April 10-13, 2018
short circuit fault by finding the best parameters at each
instant.
In this work we have been interested to self-tuning adaptive
and robust control strategies. Several works were performed to
enhance power system transient stability, reference [4] has
applied the output feedback linearization (OFL), previously
this technique has been used by taking the SMIB voltage as
reference , see also [11]. In [8], the authors design a nonlinear
control system in the sense of Lyapunov control technique; a
comparison was made including both AVR and PSS. In [3], the
direct feedback linearization (DFL) control has been applied.
The nonlinear excitation system controller designed was
composed of two parts; the DFL compensator and the
nonlinear voltage stabilizer.
The former works were based on the improvement of the
feedback reaction of the voltage regulator by improving the
Riccati’s equation parameters [30], using back stepping, and
sliding mode techniques. Recently, the development in this
area consists on the design of a new control law based on PID
regulation in the AVR system based on evolutionary algorithm
[14-16], as well as the design of optimal supplementary
stabilizing signal based on the power system stabilizer PSS
was performed. The latter has been taking a large
consideration by electric power system researchers for decades
because it can enhance the set of power system stability
interval issues. Other achievements are expected by a
coordination of controller including the renewable energy
sources, dispersed generation and the performance of ESS
[17].
Others works were performed to overcome the issues of
transient stability enhancement by including the evolutionary
algorithms and the artificial intelligence. Indeed, in [19-24]
PSO, GA, Fuzzy logic, Expert system, Neural Network are
used to enhance the transient stability.
In this work, we have implemented two meta-heuristic
optimization techniques as control actions to enhance the
transient stability of the power system. The control strategy is
the robust and adaptive control based on estimation and self-
tuning parameters. The obtained results can be used in training
for making decision in multi-agents system. The approach was
applied in multi-machine power system with high order system
components model for a best CCT values accuracy
determination. We note that the approach represents one task
of an offline decision database suitable in the agents learning
process [29]. Moreover, several power system reduction and
equivalence techniques are used to deal with the computation
time issue.
-587-
 The organization of the paper is as follows. Section II A. Differential algebraic equations
describes the dynamical model of the system under The In aim to predict the transient behavior of the system a
consideration. Section III includes the presentation of the time domain simulation was performed using a numerical
proposed self-tuning control strategies. In Section IV, the integration method (e.g. Rung-Kutta 4, Newton-Raphson) see
simulation and interpretation of the obtained results have been [28-31]. In Matlab, the considered system model consists in
presented. The conclusions are considered in Section V. the nonlinear differential algebraic equation (DAE) of the
turbo alternator (1)-(10), together with the set of algebraic
II. POWER SYSTEM MODEL equations representing the network (11)-(12). Loads are
Control efficiency techniques were mostly performed on a modeled as a constant admittance in (13)-(14).
reduced system. In this study, for the transient stability purpose
we have performed simulation on the single machine infinite di
 i s (1)
bus (SMIB) presented in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2, as well as the dt
western system coordinate council (WSCC) 9-buses 3-
machines test cases presented in Fig. 3. The synchronous 2Hi di ' ' ' '
machines were modeled by the fourth order model equipped  TMi  Edi Idi  Eqi Iqi  (Xqi  Xdi )Iqi Idi
with the standard third order model of IEEE Type 1 excitation
s dt (2)
system [33], as presented in (1)-(4) and (5)-(7), respectively. Di (i s )
'
' dEqi ' '
Td0i  Eqi  (Xdi  Xdi )Idi  Efdi (3)
dt
'
' dE ' '
Tq0i di  Edi  (Xqi  Xqi )Iqi (4)
dt
Figure 1. Single line diagram of the OMIB test case.
dEfdi
TEi  (KEi  SEi (Efdi ))Efdi VRi (5)
dt
dRfi K
TFi  Rfi  Fi Efdi (6)
dt TFi

dVRi K K
TAi  VRi  KAi Rfi  Ai Fi Efdi  KAi (Vrefi Vi ) (7)
dt TFi

VRimin VRi VRimax (8)

1 Rsi
' '  '
Edi'' Vi sini i 
Figure 2. OMIB test case response w(δ). Idi  2
Rsi  Xqi Xdi Xqi
 Eqi Vi cosi i   (9)

1 Rsi Eqi' Vi cosi i 

' '  ' 
 Edi Vi sini i  
Iqi  2 ' (10)
Rsi  Xqi Xdi Xdi

 j i 
 
Ve
i
ji
 di qi  2  PLi Vi  jQLi Vi  
I  I e
 

(11)
N

j i k ik 
VVi kYike
k1


N

PLi Vi  jQLi Vi  VV

j i k ik 
i kYike (12)
k1
P Q
GLi  Li
2 (13) Li   Li
2 (14)
Figure 3. Single line diagram of multi machines power system, case of 3- VLi VLi
machines, 9-buses WSCC.

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 All power systems test case parameters and initial - Variable constraints
conditions calculations can be found in [29-32].
imin  i  imax (17)
III. PARTICLE SWARM OPTIMIZATION
min max
VRi  VRi  VRi
PSO was used in various controllers for optimal parameters
selection, due to their advantage as the less code line program
and simulation control parameters. In Fig. 3, we present the
flowchart of this technique which was proposed by [25-27]. The proposed control strategy will perform the estimation
of the best parameters at each instant in a real time simulation.
The Automatic voltage regulators parameters are modified
consecutively, as shown in the Fig. 4 below:
Start

KAoptth
Initialize PSO Machine δ
parameters
PSO / GA m

Generate first swarm

KAopt VRmax SE  f Efd 

VRref
Evaluate the fitness
of all particles δi
Vt  KA KE Kg

Record personal best Update the position 1sTA 1sTE 1sTg
fitness of all particles of particles
VRmin
Find global best Update the velocity
particle of particles sKF
1sTF
Swarm
Convergence Figure 5. The adaptive control strategy based on evolutionary algorithm
applied to the IEEE Type 1 Excitation system.

The optimal gain values of parameters KAopt are

End determined simultaneously by applying the PSO process in the
aim to satisfy the overall transient stability constraint δmax.
We note that the used approach has a decentralized goal which
is the stability enhancement of each generator relatively to the
Figure 4. Standard flowchart of PSO. reference machine. In contrast, KA parameters can be
optimized individually for each machine locally to satisfy a
local stability goal but we expect a poor efficiency behavior by
A. Adaptive control strategy this control action in case of sever perturbation.
The control action is based on the minimization of an
Firstly, the propose strategy was applied on the SMIB to
objective function, which defines the gap between the power
check the implementation of the optimization as control
angle of the ith machine and the power angle of the reference
algorithm. The multi-machine power system is used to
machine as described in (15):
implement the coordination strategy between AVRs. All
t1 generators are considered having the same voltage regulators,
min f   i dt (15) which is not the real case. The stability is improved
t simultaneously by considering the variation of all voltage
regulators in the network at the same time, which allows us to
Subject to: avoid mistuning of one parameter of an individual machine
- Control constraint that can worsen the system transient stability.
min max
KAi  KAi  KAi (16)

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 using a high gain values determined automatically by the PSO
algorithm. The depicted figures are obtained at the new CCT
- Read power system Data values given by the new proposed strategy and they show that
- Matrices initialization the conventional controller with a fixed gain values will lead to
- Initialize DAE solution instability states at earlier stages compared to the proposed
robust controller based PSO.

t=0

Apply fault

t = t + Δt Time domain
simulation

PSO
t < tsimu Move to the new
best positions

Evaluate Figure 7. Power Angle of generator 2 next bus 1 three phase short circuit
eliminated after 313ms.
objective
function

δ optimal

Stop

Figure 6. Optimale power angle deviation flowchart algorithm using RPSO

controller.

In figures 6, we present the RPSO controllers flowchart

algorithms. The simulations and obtained results are discussed
in the next section.
Figure 8. Power Angle of generator 3 next bus 1 three phase short circuit
eliminated after 313ms.
IV. SIMULATIONS AND RESULTS
In simulations, we have applied a sever disturbance at 1 sec In Fig. 9 and 10, the generators power angles are depicted at
near terminal of generator 1 including the following cases: the CCT limit using a conventional controller. We observe that
the oscillations are reduced and a new steady state operating
1. Simulation with conventional controller and fixed point is obtained with an increase of 20 degrees using the
parameters; robust tuning based PSO controller.
2. Simulation with conventional controller and Robust
variable parameters (Robust self-tuning control);
3. Simulation with conventional controller and adaptive
variable parameters (Adaptive self-tuning control).
A comparison study is performed using different control
strategies in the aim to get the best critical clearing time CCT
to prevent the system instability, as presented in table 1.

A. Robust tuning based on PSO controller:

In Fig. 7 and 8, a comparison of power angle of generator 2
and 3 respectively is presented, regarding the performance of
the adopted strategy based on PSO.
The figures show that the transient instabilities of
generators were eliminated by damping the high oscillations Figure 9. Power Angle of generator 2 next bus 1 three phase short circuit
eliminated after 285ms

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 TABLE I. CCT COMPARISON TABLE BETWEEN CONVENTIONNEL
VOLTAGE REGULATOR AND CONVENTIONNEL VOLTAGE REGULATOR
INCLUDING INTELLIGENT TUNNING CONTROLLER USING PSO

Critical clearing time (millisecond)

Fault
buses Conventional Enhancement AVR +
AVR+RPSO
AVR ΔCCT APSO
Bus 1 285 313 28 316

Bus 2 197 218 21 220

Bus 3 237 258 21 260

Bus 4 266 292 26 295

Bus 5 322 374 52 379

Bus 6 351 415 64 420

Figure 10. Power Angle of generator 3 next bus 1 three phase short circuit
Bus 7 203 224 21 226
eliminated after 285ms
Bus 8 274 314 40 320

B. Adaptive tuning based PSO controller: Bus 9 232 253 21 255

In Fig. 11 is depicted the optimal gain values KA at each
step time for the considered multi machine test case and
consequently in Fig. 12, we can see the performance of the
proposed strategy to enhance the transient instability of the
system.
Discussion: from table 1 we observe that the best
improvement is seen at the load buses: 5, 6 and 8, where the
fault occurrence probability is higher. In other side, we obtain
a low enhancement of the transient stability margin at the
generation power plant due to the severity of the fault. Load
shedding remains the ideal but not the best way to improve the
transient stability. We can conclude that the proposed
controller is very efficient in damping the oscillations after fast
sever contingencies. In contrast, the power system stabilizer is
more dedicated to damp low oscillations in long term stability
assessment.

Figure 11. AVR_1 Sample values of optimal parameters control for the multi-
machine power system test case next bus 6 three phase short circuits
eliminated after 420ms.
V. CONCLUSION
This paper introduces a new nonlinear controller to enhance
the power system transient stability namely robust tuning and
adaptive tuning based particle swarm optimization, (APSO)
and (RPSO) respectively and alternatively based on genetic
algorithm namely (RGA) and (AGA). These controllers can
deal with any unpredictable behavior as the case of the
renewable energy generation behavior connected to the grid
which makes the system more resilient to disturbances. The
evolutionary algorithms are very useful to deal with nonlinear
system as the case of transient behavior of power system. The
proposed controllers give the expected results without
exceeding the variables limits. The biggest enhancement is
obtained at the load levels. The use of this strategy can be
considered for training a neural network system to take the
right action at the right moment and for each given situation.
The controller is applied to both SMIB and multi-machine
power systems.

Figure 12. Power Angle of generator 2 using adaptive tuning based PSO
controller next bus 6 three phase short circuit eliminated after 420ms.
FURTHER WORK
In future work, we will analyze the effect and efficiency of
the proposed controllers including their coordination on more
realistic power systems. Dynamic load models as the case of
induction motors (IM) and the doubly fed induction generator

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(DFIG) with variable wind profile will be considered.
ABBREVIATIONS
CCT: Critical clearing time;
DAE: Differential algebraic equation;
SMIB: Single machine infinite bus;
RPSO: Robust particle swarm optimization controller;
APSO: Adaptive particle swarm optimization controller;
RGA: Robust genetic algorithm controller;
AGA: Adaptive genetic algorithm controller;
IM: Induction machine;
DFIG: Doubly Fed Induction Generator;
APPENDIX
TABLE II. PARTICLE SWARM OPTIMIZATION AND GENETIC ALGORITHM
PARAMETERS
PSO Parameters Values GA Parameters Values
Maximum number Maximum number
of generation
10 of generation
10
Population size 20 Population size 20
Coefficent c1 2 Crossover rate 0.25
Coefficent c2 2 Mutation rate 0.01
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