International Journal of Modelling and Simulation

ISSN: 0228-6203 (Print) 1925-7082 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tjms20

Invasive weed optimization-based automatic

generation control for multi-area power systems

Somanath Mishra, A. K. Barisal & B. Chitti Babu

To cite this article: Somanath Mishra, A. K. Barisal & B. Chitti Babu (2019) Invasive weed
optimization-based automatic generation control for multi-area power systems, International Journal
of Modelling and Simulation, 39:3, 190-202, DOI: 10.1080/02286203.2018.1554403

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02286203.2018.1554403

Published online: 07 Dec 2018.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 19

View Crossmark data

Citing articles: 1 View citing articles

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=tjms20
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MODELLING AND SIMULATION
2019, VOL. 39, NO. 3, 190–202
https://doi.org/10.1080/02286203.2018.1554403

ARTICLE

Invasive weed optimization-based automatic generation control for multi-area

power systems
Somanath Mishraa, A. K. Barisal b
and B. Chitti Babuc
a
Department of Electrical Engineering, VSSUT, Burla, India; bDepartment of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering & Technology,
Bhubaneswar, India; cDepartment of Electronics Engineering, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design & Manufacturing,
Kancheepuram, Chennai, India

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

In this paper, Invasive weed optimization (IWO) algorithm is proposed for testing automatic Received 21 March 2018
generation control (AGC) of multi-area power systems. Initially, a two-area multi-source power Accepted 28 November 2018
system interconnected by a DC link is considered and IWO is employed to optimize the propor- KEYWORDS
tional integral derivative (PID) controller for AGC employing a modified objective function. The Automatic generation
superiority of the proposed approach is shown by comparing the results with recently published control (AGC); Multi-area
optimal algorithms for the similar system under study. The comparison is made using various multi-source power system;
performance criteria such as integral of time multiplied absolute error (ITAE), minimum damping HVDC link; Invasive Weed
ratio (MDR) of dominant eigenvalues, settling times and maximum overshoots. Furthermore, Optimization (IWO)
sensitivity analysis is performed to show the robustness of the proposed approach by varying the algorithm; sensitivity
system parameters, operating load conditions from their nominal values as well as size and analysis; Generation Rate
Constraints (GRC)
locations of disturbance. The proposed approach is also extended to three area system consider-
ing both thermal and hydro units with generation rate constraints (GRC) and the superiority of
the proposed approach is shown by comparing the results of Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference
System (ANFIS), hybrid Bacteria Foraging Optimization Algorithm with Particle Swarm
Optimization (hBFOA–PSO) approaches for the identical interconnected power system.

1. Introduction pertaining to AGC problem have been discussed [4].

Lee et al. have proposed a gain scheduling control
The modern power systems are becoming complex day
method to AGC of interconnected power system to
by day and interconnected with each other through tie
improve the performance to wide range of operating
lines to exchange power between different control areas
conditions. The growth in size, complexity, and
for successful operation and reliable control. The purpose
changing load pattern of electric power system has
of automatic generation control (AGC) is to maintain
necessitated the use of intelligent control methods
scheduled system frequency and scheduled tie-line power
for satisfactory operation of power systems [5].
deviations during load disturbances. The AGC adjusts the
There has been remarkable turnaround in research
area control error (ACE) to zero so as to restore the
work attempting to propose and implement sophis-
frequency and tie line power to their nominal values [1,2].
ticated control strategies in AGC systems such as
Over the last decade, many researchers have
fuzzy logic-based gain scheduling [6], fuzzy logic
reported several control strategies for AGC of
controller [7], self tuning fuzzy type PID controller
power systems in order to stabilize system frequency
[8], reinforcement learning approach [9], artificial
and tie line power flow at their nominal values
neural network-based controller [10], adaptive
during normal operation as well as in small pertur-
neuro-fuzzy interference system [11], genetic algo-
bations. Cohn et al. [2] had initiated the AGC work
rithm-based fuzzy gain scheduling PI controller
by describing some aspects of tie line bias control of
[12], evolutionary fuzzy PI controller [13], com-
interconnected power systems. The design and con-
bined intelligent techniques [14], PSO-based con-
cept of modern optimal controller for intercon-
troller with fuzzy application [15], generalized
nected power system was initiated by Elgerd and
neural network approach [16], dynamic perfor-
Fosha [3]. The detail literature review on the AGC
mance analysis of AC/DC lines with multi-source
of power systems with different control techniques
of power generation in each area [17,18], optimal

CONTACT B. Chitti Babu bcbabunitrkl@ieee.org Department of Electronics Engineering, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design &
Manufacturing, Kancheepuram, Chennai 600127, India
© 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MODELLING AND SIMULATION 191

output feedback controller for a multi-source system conditions as well as changes in size and loca-
[19,20], differential evolution (DE) algorithm tuned tions of load perturbations.
controller [21,22], and artificial bee colony (ABC) (v) To test the effectiveness of IWO in a three area
algorithm tuned controller [23] for AGC studies. power system with GRC and compare the results
Gozde et al. [23] have reported superior perfor- with ANFIS and hBFOA–PSO algorithms.
mance of PI and PID controller tuned by ABC
algorithm compared to PSO.
It is clear from literature survey that the perfor- 2. Materials and method
mance of the power system depends on the artificial
2.1. Two area multi-source power system with
intelligent techniques employed, the strategy of con-
HVDC links
troller structure and the objective function considered.
Hence, proposing and implementing new intelligent Initially, a two-area multisource power system has been
optimization algorithms to real-world AGC problems considered. It consists of generating units such as
are always welcome. Recently, a new biologically reheat thermal, hydro and gas units in each area with
inspired meta-heuristic algorithm, known as the inva- parallel AC–DC tie lines [19]. The transfer function
sive weed optimization (IWO), was developed by model of multi-area multi-source power system with
Mehrabian et al. [24]. It is based on the invasive habits HVDC link along with proposed PID controllers is
of growth of weeds and possessing a good balance shown in Figure 1. The different parameters of the
between exploration and exploitation ability. IOW has power system are provided in Appendix A.
been successfully employed to various engineering pro-
blems such as recommender system design [25],
antenna system design [26], state estimation of non- 2.2. Control scheme and objective function
linear systems [27], unit commitment problem solution
The proportional integral derivative (PID) controller is
[28] and large scale economic load dispatch of power
the most popular feedback controller. It is used in many
systems [29]. Similarly, other controllers like integral
process industries due to its simplicity, faster closed-loop
controller [30], hybrid BFOA_PSO controller [31] in
response and robustness. The design of objective function
AGC of multi-area power systems, ANFIS controller
to tune PID controller parameters is generally based on
[32] for speed control of induction motor, Performance
a performance index that considers the entire closed-loop
analysis using classical controllers tuned by moth flame
response. Typical performance indices considered in the
optimization algorithm for AGC system [33] have been
time domain are peak overshoot, rise time, settling time,
reported. The modified differential algorithm (MDE)
and steady-state error. However, the eigenvalues and
[34] provides better results than conventional DE in
modal analysis provides an extension of analytical meth-
identifying the Pendubot’ parameters. This work gives
ods to examine the low frequency oscillations that are
a message that modification of intelligent algorithm
present in a power system. Eigen value analysis investi-
still provides an improved result. The present work
gates the dynamic behavior of the power system under
focuses on the performance of the IWO as an optimiz-
different characteristic frequencies (modes). In a power
ing tool in tuning the PID controller parameters for
system, it is required that all modes to be stable. It is
AGC of multi-area power systems.
worth mentioning that all electromechanical oscillations
The main investigations of the present work:
are damped out as quickly as possible when the damping
ratios of dominant eigen values are maximized. To meet
(i) To develop a strategy based on IWO, for AGC
the above design specifications, three different objective
of multi-area power systems.
functions are employed in the present paper as given
(ii) To optimize the PID controller gains employ-
below:
ing IWO and analyze the dynamic performance
tsim

of power system with IWO optimized control-
ler for AGC. J1 ¼ ISE ¼ ò jΔF1 j2 þ jΔF2 j2 þ jΔPTie j2 : dt (1)
0
(iii) To compare the dynamic performance of the
system without and with HVDC link with tsim

IWO-based PID controller to that of optimal J2 ¼ ITSE ¼ ò jΔF1 j2 þ jΔF2 j2 þ jΔPTie j2 : t: dt (2)
0
controller.
(iv) To analyze the sensitivity for the proposed tsim
IWO-PID controller and test its robustness to J3 ¼ ITAE ¼ ò ðjΔF1 j þ jΔF2 j þ jΔPTie jÞ  t  dt (3)
0
wide changes in system parameters and loading
192 S. MISHRA ET AL.

Figure 1. Transfer function model of two area multisource power system interconnected by parallel AC–DC tie lines.

tsim tsim The error inputs to the controllers are the respective
J4 ¼ ò ω1 : ò ðjΔF1 j þ jΔF2 j þ jΔPTie jÞ  t  dt ACE represented in (2) and (3) for area-1 and area-2,
0 0
1 respectively,
þ ω2 :  nm  (4)
P ACE1 ¼ B1 ΔF1 þ ΔPTie (5)
min ð1  i Þ
i¼1
ACE2 ¼ B2 ΔF2  ΔPTie (6)
where ΔF1 and ΔF2 are the incremental change of
frequencies of area-1 and area-2, respectively. ΔPTie is The control inputs of the power system UT , UH and UG
the tie line power deviation, tsim is the range of simula- are the outputs of the controllers. These control inputs
tion time; i is the damping ratio, nm is the total are obtained as follows:
number of dominant eigen values, ω1 and ω2 are dACE1
weighting factors. Appropriate weighting factors are UT ¼ KP1 ACE1 þ KI1 ò ACE1 þ KD1 (7)
dt
being multiplied to the right hand side of individual
terms of Equation (4) which helps to make each term dACE1
UH ¼ KP2 ACE1 þ KI2 ò ACE1 þ KD2 (8)
in the objective function competitive enough during dt
the optimization process. A series of runs of optimized
algorithm reveals that the numerical value of ITAE lies dACE1
UG ¼ KP3 ACE1 þ KI3 ò ACE1 þ KD3 (9)
in the range of 0.16 to 0.4 and MDR lies in the range of dt
0.03 to 0.38 and settling times of ΔF1 , ΔF2 and ΔPTie lie The constraints of PID controller parameters should
in the range of 5–15 s. In the optimization process the satisfy its boundary values. Therefore, the objective
weights are chosen as ω1 = 1.0 and ω2 = 10, to make function can be formulated as the following optimiza-
each term competitive in the Equation (4). tion problem.

Minimize J
subject to
Kij min  Ki  Kij max (10)
where i ¼ P; I; D and j ¼ 1; 2; 3.
The values of controller parameters are selected in
between −2.0 and 2.0 in the present work.
3. Overview of Invasive Weed Optimization
IWO is a meta-heuristic optimization algorithm
inspired by biological phenomenon. Early work on
IWO was started by Mehrabian and Lucas [24]. This
optimization technique is based on the typical charac-
teristics of weed plants [25].
3.1. Computational procedure
The steps of the proposed approach are mentioned below:
Step 1: The seeds are initialized based on selected
variables uniformly between their limits.
Step 2: A Seed matrix (S) of size (Popmax  d) is
created with more number of plants in the population
Popmax having potential solutions.
Step-3: The fitness value of each seed set (S) (each
row (plant) of S) is evaluated based on considered
objective function. Then ranking is done in the colony
with best-fitted plant with rank no. 1.
Step 4: Every weed (plant) produces new seeds
depending on its rank in the whole population in
seed set. The best-fit plant produces maximum number
of seeds (Nmax ) and giving chance to all other plants to
participate in reproduction process.
Step5: The number of seeds to be created by each
weed varies linearly from Nmin to Nmax .
Fi  Fworst
Number of seeds ¼ ðNmax  Nmin Þ
Fbest  Fworst
þ Nmin (11)
where Fi is the current fitness of ith weed. The worst
and best fitness in weed population are denoted by
Fworst and Fbest , respectively. The generated seeds are
normally distributed over the field with zero mean and
varying standard deviation of σ iter described by
 
itermax  iter n

σ iter ¼ σ0  σf þ σf (12)
itermax
where itermax and iter are the maximum number of
iteration cycles assigned by the user and current itera-
tion number, respectively. σ 0 is initial standard
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MODELLING AND SIMULATION 193
deviations and σ f as final standard deviations and n is
the nonlinear modulation index.
Step 6: The offspring and parents are participating
in evaluation process and ranking is done based on
their fitness value. Plants with lower ranking in the
colony are eliminated to satisfy the maximum number
of plants in the colony (Popmax ).
Step 7: The best individual is selected among the
seed-parent combination in the colony during iterative
process. When the predefined maximum number of
iterations is reached, the iterative process is terminated
and the optimal gains of controller are displayed,
otherwise go to Step 3 for continuation.
4. Results and discussions
The study has been realized and implemented in Matlab-
7.10.0.499 (R2010a) environment on a Pentium-IV; with
3.06 GHz processor, 1GB RAM PC. The model of the
system under study has been developed in MATLAB/
SIMULINK and IWO program has been written (in .m
file). The developed model is simulated in a separate .m
file considering a 1% step load perturbation (SLP) in area-
1 at time zero second. The objective function is calculated
in .m file and used in optimization algorithm for tuning
the gains of PID controller for power system. Series of
experiments were conducted to properly select the con-
trol parameters of IWO. The values of algorithm are
selected as Popmax = 10, σ 0 = 0.0015, σ f = 0.3, Nmin = 0,
Nmax = 3, itermax = 50, d = 3 and n = 3. The flow chart of
proposed IWO technique to tune the controller para-
meters is shown in Figure 2. The optimization program
with the model (Figure 2) were simulated 25 times for
each objective functions and the best solution among the
25 solutions is chosen as final controller parameters. To
investigate the effect of objective function on the dynamic
performance of the system in terms of settling times (2%
of final value) of frequency and tie-line power deviations
and MDRs for the system with AC/DC links are provided
in Table 1. It can be seen from Table 1 that among the
three conventional objective functions (J1, J2, J3), less
settling time with a comparatively high MDR is obtained
with ITAE objective function compared to the ISE and
ITSE objective functions. It is also clear from Table 1 that
the proposed modified objective function J4 given by
Equation (4) gives the best system performance in terms
of high MDR values and less settling times values. The
final controller parameters employing the proposed
objective function J4 are shown in Table 2 for two-area
multi-source power system without and with HVDC link.
194 S. MISHRA ET AL.

Table 1. Performance comparison with different objective

functions.
Objective function ISE: J1 ITSE: J2 ITAE: J3 Proposed: J4
Settling times ΔF1 1.88 2.58 2.2 1.98
(2% band) ΔF2 4.76 4.06 3.99 3.82
ΔPTie 0.0044 0.0052 0.0035 0.0027
MDR 0.0111 0.3395 0.3386 0.3577

Table 2. IWO tuned controller parameters of two area multi-

source power system without and with DC link.
Controller Parameter Thermal Hydro Gas
System with AC lines KP = 1.8347 KP = 0.8420 KP = 1.5027
KI = 0.0744 KI = 0.0911 KI = 0.1208
KD = 1.1720 KD = 1.8504 KD = 1.4443
System with AC–DC KP = 1.2362 KP = 1.7908 KP = 1.7099
parallel lines
KI = 1.8644 KI = 1.165 KI = 0.0697
KD = 1.6702 KD = 1.1655 KD = 1.7708

of the proposed approach is shown by comparing the

Figure 2. Flow chart of IWO algorithm to tune the controller
parameters.
4.1. Investigation of tuning performance
4.1.1. Multi-area multi-source power system without
and with DC link
To study the dynamic performance of designed con-
trollers, time domain simulations are performed for
step load change at different locations. The superiority
results with recently published optimal controller [19]
for the same power systems.
Case A: Step load change in area-1
A 1% SLP in area 1 is considered at t = 0 s. The
system modes, MDR, ITAE value, settling times of
frequency and tie-line power deviations (2% tolerance
band) and maximum over shoot (MOS) with proposed
IWO-PID controller for the system with AC lines only
as well as with both AC/DC lines are provided in Table
3. For comparison, the corresponding values with opti-
mal control [19] are also given in Table 3. It is clear
from Table 3 that, the eigen values lie in the left half of
s plane for both cases thus maintaining the stability. It
is also evident from the Table 2 that minimum damp-
ing ratio (MDR = 0.3577) with IWO optimized PID
controller is superior to that of optimal controller
(MDR = 0.2896) in AC/DC lines which is very impor-
tant for stability point of view. It is also evident from
Table 3 that for similar power system, settling times
and MOS in fof Δf1 , Δf2 and ΔPTie are significantly
reduced with proposed approach compared to recently
published optimal control approach [19] for the iden-
tical power system. Hence, it can be concluded that the
proposed approach gives an improved dynamic perfor-
mance compared to the optimal control method. For
better illustration of improved results with proposed
approach, these improvements are given in Table 4. It
can be seen from Table 4 that, the values of ITAE, ISE,
ITSE, IAE, settling time of Δf1 , Δf2 and ΔPTie are
improved by 94.49%, 99.78%, 99.86%, 95.05%,
85.63%, 69.97%, and 99.98%, respectively, with IWO
tuned PID controller compared to that of optimal
controller [19] for system with AC/DC parallel lines.
The dynamic responses of the system for the above
disturbance are shown in Figures 3 and 4. It is evident
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MODELLING AND SIMULATION 195

Table 3. System modes, minimum damping ratio, settling times, maximum overshoot and ITAE values for two area multi-source
power system without and with DC link.
IWO controller with Optimal controller IWO controller Optimal controller
Methods AC/DC Links AC/DC Links [19] with AC tie only with AC tie only [19]
System −23.8477
Modes −12.7552 −21.9656 −12.9350 −23.9591
−12.7381 −15.9350 −12.9010 −21.3382
−1.9007 ± 4.9626i −10.4836 0.0747 ± 2.3775i −15.8966
−2.1160 ± 4.7464i −2.2658 ± 7.4892i −4.8657 ± 0.5316i −6.5196 ± 5.4667i
−4.0603 −5.7721 ± 2.8965i −4.8409 ± 0.4653i −6.4950
−3.8651 ± 0.1011i −6.2593 −2.8966 −6.2617
−3.6712 −4.6014 ± 0.2316i −2.7307 −4.4414
−2.2749 −3.6601 −0.2848 ± 1.2647i −3.8534 ± 0.0428i
−2.2148 −2.3957 −1.6240 −0.3465 ± 1.9436i
−0.9610 −2.0112 −1.1412 ± 0.6372i −2.3489
−0.8247 −1.2278 −1.0639 −1.8534
−0.3112 ± 0.4421i −1.0783 −0.2055 −1.2576
−0.2572 ± 0.0948i −0.4370 ± 0.4344i −0.0784 ± 0.0295i −1.0725
−0.2584 −0.0813 ± 0.1552i −0.0830 −0.4414 ± 0.4327i
−0.0398 −0.2318 −0.0484 −0.1269 ± 0.1044i
−0.0422 ± 0.0034i −0.2041 −0.0354 −0.2048
−0.0485 −0.0415 −0.0355 −0.0417
−5.0000 −0.0417 −5.0000 −0.0416
−5.0000 −5.0000 −5.0000 −5.0000
−5.0000 −5.0000 −5.0000
−5.0000
MDR 0.3577 0.2896 0.3139 0.1755
ITAE 0.1968 3.5764 0.312 5.1482
Settling times (2% band) ΔF1 1.98 13.78 4.06 13.3
ΔF2 3.82 12.72 3.76 12.4
ΔPTie 0.0027 13.46 3.41 9.69
MOS ΔF1 × 10−4 5.15 91 31 105
ΔF2 × 10−4 4.6 87 20 84
ΔPTie × 10−4 4.99 6.8 11 14

Table 4. Performance criteria for two area multi-source power from Figures 3 to 4 that the superb damping perfor-
system with parallel AC/DC links. mances in term of settling time, overshoot and under
Optimal shoot in Δf1 , Δf2 and ΔPTie are significantly better than
Objective function & Control Proposed IWO % Improvement by
Parameters [19] PID Controller Proposed approach those of optimal controller [19] in both the cases.
ITAE 3.5764 0.1968 94.49
ISE 0.0454 9.9090 × 10−5 99.78
ITSE 0.1076 1.5194 × 10−4 99.86 4.1.2. Case-B: step load change in area-2
IAE 0.7989 0.1968 95.05
Settling times Δf1 13.78 85.63 85.63 To test the effectiveness of the proposed controller with
(0.002% Δf2 12.72 69.97 69.97 the change in location of SLP, a 1% SLP in area-2 is
band) ΔPTie 13.46 99.98 99.98
considered. The dynamic responses of area 1 of the system

Figure 3. Frequency deviation of area-1 for 1% SLP in area-1.

196 S. MISHRA ET AL.
Figure 4. Tie-line power deviation for 1% SLP in area-1.
with AC tie only and with AC/DC link are shown in
Figures 5 and 6. It is clear from Figures 5 to 6 that the
designed controllers are equally effective when the loca-
tion of disturbances change. In this case also improved
dynamic responses are obtained with proposed approach
compared to the optimal control method [19].
4.1.3. Case C: step load change in both areas
The performance of proposed controllers is also ver-
ified under simultaneous disturbances in both areas.
The he dynamic response of area 2 and tie line power
for SLP of 2 % in area-1 and 1 % in area-2 both
occurring at t = 0 s are shown in Figures 7 and 8. It
is evident from Figures 7 to 8 that in this case also
considerable improvements in dynamic performances
are obtained with proposed approach compared to
optimal control approach [19].
Figure 5. Frequency deviation of area-1 for 1% SLP in area-2.
4.2. Sensitivity analysis
Sensitivity analysis is performed to study the robustness the
system to changes in the operating conditions and system
parameters in the range of  25% without changing the
optimum values of IWO tuned PID controller gains. The
various performance indexes (ITAE, ISE, ITSE, settling
time, maximum overshoots and MDRs) under normal
and parameter variation cases for the system with AC/DC
link for a 1% SLP in area-1 are reported in Table 5. It can be
seen from Table 5 that settling times, maximum over-
shoots, MDRs, ITAE, ISE, and ITSE values vary within
acceptable ranges and are nearby equal to the respective
values obtained with nominal system parameter. Hence, it
can be concluded that the proposed controllers are consis-
tent and perform satisfactory operation when system para-
meters changes in the range ±25%. As an example, the
frequency deviation of area-1 under varied loading
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MODELLING AND SIMULATION 197

Figure 6. Tie-line power deviation for 1% SLP in area-2.

Figure 7. Frequency deviation of area-2 for 1% SLP in area-1 and 2% SLP in area-2.

Figure 8. Tie-line power deviation for 1% SLP in area-1 and 2% SLP in area-2.

condition is shown in Figure 9. It can be observed from For completeness, SLP in area-1 is increased from
Figure 9 that the effect of the variation of operating loading 1% to 4% in a step of 1% and the dynamic response of
conditions on the system responses is unchanged. area 1 for the system with AC/DC line is shown in
198 S. MISHRA ET AL.

Table 5. Sensitivity analysis of power system with parallel AC/DC links.

Performance index Settling time Ts (s) MOS
−5 −4 −4
Parameter variation % change ITAE ISE (×10 ) ITSE (×10 ) IAE Δf1 Δf2 ΔPTie Δf1 (×10 ) Δf2 (×10−4) MDR
Loading Condition. +25 0.1901 9.88 1.519 0.0395 1.98 3.8 .0002 5.15 4.60 0.3586
+50 0.1902 9.86 1.52 0.0395 1.99 3.8 0.002 5.14 4.60 0.3596
−25 0.1899 9.93 1.519 0.0395 1.98 3.8 0.002 5.16 4.60 0.3567
−50 0.1898 9.95 1.519 0.0395 1.98 3.8 0.002 5.17 4.60 0.3457
Tsg +25 0.1903 10.0 1.52 0.0396 1.97 3.81 .0002 5.20 4.63 0.3563
+50 0.1906 10.1 1.53 0.0397 1.94 3.81 0.002 5.24 4.66 0.3563
−25 0.1897 9.79 1.51 0.0394 1.99 3.8 0.002 5.11 4.57 0.0294
−50 0.1895 9.69 1.50 0.0393 1.92 3.79 0.002 5.07 4.54 0.365
Tr +25 0.2204 10.14 1.60 0.0413 2.04 3.91 .0002 4.48 4.34 0.3577
+50 01326 10.30 1.67 0.0426 2.07 3.97 0.002 3.92 4.07 0.3577
−25 0.1607 9.56 1.39 0.0372 1.91 3.64 0.002 5.94 4.77 0.3576
−50 0.1326 8.97 1.21 0.0341 1.81 3.38 0.002 6.71 4.63 0.3574
Tt +25 0.1913 10.23 1.55 0.0398 1.95 3.82 .0002 5.31 4.71 0.3664
+50 0.1929 10.60 1.58 0.0402 1.91 3.84 0.002 5.51 4.85 0.0217
−25 0.1888 9.56 1.49 0.0398 2.01 3.78 0.002 4.98 4.48 0.1438
−50 0.1878 9.21 1.47 0.0388 2.01 3.76 0.002 4.82 4.37 0.3512
Trh +25 0.1952 9.94 1.56 0.04 2.02 3.86 .0002 5.11 4.60 0.0556
+50 0.1978 9.97 1.58 0.0403 2.05 3.9 0.002 5.06 4.59 0.3598
−25 0.18 9.88 1.46 0.0386 1.9 3.71 0.002 5.19 4.56 0.3547
−50 0.1643 9.98 1.34 0.0368 1.72 3.5 0.002 5.1 4.36 0.0495
Tgh +25 0.1902 9.902 1.52 0.0395 1.99 3.8 .0002 5.18 4.62 0.3668
+50 0.1903 9.89 1.53 0.0396 1.99 3.82 0.002 5.2 4.63 0.3715
−25 0.1899 9.92 1.51 0.0394 1.99 3.8 0.002 5.14 4.60 0.3432
−50 0.1897 9.91 1.51 0.0394 2.03 3.8 0.002 5.12 4.59 0.3254
Trs +25 0.1849 9.88 1.4 7 0.0388 1.93 3.74 .0002 5.02 4.47 0.3550
+50 0.1801 9.88 1.42 0.0382 1.86 3.69 0.002 4.90 4.34 0.3518
−25 01954 9.95 1.57 0.0402 2.03 3.87 0.002 5.30 4.8 0.3599
−50 0.2009 10.02 1.63 0.0408 2.06 3.92 0.002 5.44 4.88 0.3615
Tw +25 0.1908 10.09 1.54 0.0397 1.97 3.82 .0002 5.27 4.67 0.3643
+50 0.1918 10.27 1.56 0.0400 1.97 3.83 0.002 5.41 4.74 0.3686
−25 0.1894 9.69 1.50 0.0393 2.01 3.79 0.002 5.06 4.55 0.3469
−50 0.1890 9.44 1.49 0.0391 2.04 3.78 0.002 5.00 4.49 0.3306
Tcd +25 0.1901 9.96 1.53 0.0396 1.99 3.82 .0002 5.29 4.66 0.2276
+50 0.1902 10.03 1.55 0.0398 2.0 3.84 0.002 5.44 4.71 0.3550
−25 0.1900 9.85 1.51 0.0394 1.97 3.78 0.002 5.04 4.56 0.3575
−50 0.1901 9.79 1.50 0.0392 1.96 3.76 0.002 5.00 4.51 0.2171
T12 +25 0.1808 9.63 1.41 0.0383 1.86 3.64 .0002 3.26 4.35 0.3457
+50 0.1747 9.42 1.34 0.0375 1.78 3.5 0.002 2.00 4.12 0.3221
−25 0.2052 10.30 1.70 0.0411 2.16 3.84 0.002 7.58 4.77 0.3698
−50 0.2326 10.86 1.97 0.0433 2.4 3.89 0.002 0.001 4.57 0.3822

Figure 9. Frequency deviation of area-1 with varied loading condition.

Figure 10. It is clear from Figure 10 that satisfactory reveals an intelligent control strategy under wide varia-
performance is obtained for different value of SLP. tion in the system loading conditions, system para-
Hence, it is evident that, the proposed control scheme meters and size and location of disturbance.
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MODELLING AND SIMULATION 199

Figure 10. Frequency deviation of area-1 with different SLP in area-1.

4.3. Extension to three-area hydro thermal power
system with generation rate constraints
To demonstrate the capability of the proposed algorithm,
the work is further applied to the three area system with
nonlinearity and multiple tie-lines [11,30,31] as shown in
Figure 11. The system considers two thermal and one
hydro unit with identical controller for each area. The
rated system parameters are provided in Appendix B. The
GRC of 3%/min for thermal units and 270%/min for
rising and 360%/min for lowering generation for hydro
unit are considered. Once again the same procedure is
adopted for tuning the controller parameters for the
above system. The final controller parameters obtained
for each area using proposed IWO algorithm employing
objective function given in Equation (1) are as follows:
Area-1: KP1 = 0.1149, KI1 = 0.0648, KD1 = 0.0648
Area-2: KP2 = −0.0030, KI2 = 0.1674, KD2 = −0.0545
Area-3: KP3 = 0.0002, KI3 = 0.0584, KD3 = 0.0921
Exactly, at t = 0 sec, an SLP of 1% is applied simulta-
neously in all the areas and the frequency and tie line

Figure 11. Transfer function model of three-area hydro-thermal system with generation rate constraint.
200 S. MISHRA ET AL.

power response of area 2 are depicted in Figures 12 and
13, respectively. In order to show the superiority of
proposed method, the simulation results are being
compared with ANFIS-based controller [11], hBFOA-
PSO [18] based controller and conventional integral
controller [30] as shown in Figures 12 and 13. The
overall performance of the considered system is signif-
icantly improved with the proposed approach com-
pared to some recently published research work.
5. Conclusions
This paper reports the design and performance ana-
lysis of IWO-based PID controller applied to AGC of
interconnected power systems. Initially, a two area
multi-source power system without and with HVDC
link has been considered to demonstrate the proposed
approach. The objective function is modified with an
integral time absolute error (ITAE) criterion and
damping ratio of evaluated dominant eigenvalues
with appropriate weights is proposed to improve the
system performance in terms of settling time and peak
overshoots. Simulation findings show that the pro-
posed IWO optimized PID controller provides signif-
icantly improved system performance compared to
recently published optimal output feedback controller
for similar power system. Further, sensitivity analysis
is performed by changing the operating loading con-
ditions and system parameters in the range of  25%
and it is found that the designed controllers are robust
and also perform satisfactorily under wide changes in
the system loading condition, system parameters and
size and location of disturbance. Finally, the proposed
approach is extended to a three area hydro thermal
system with GRC. It is observed that the proposed
approach reveals superior performance compared to
some recently proposed controllers such as ANFIS-
based controller, hBFOA-PSO tuned controller and
conventional integral controller for the identical
power system.

-0.05
Δ F2 (Hz)

-0.1

Integral controller [31]

-0.15
ANFIS controller[12]
hBFOA-PSO optimized controller[32]
-0.2 Proposed IWO optimized controller

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Time (sec)

Figure 12. Frequency deviation in area 2 for 1% SLPs in all areas.

-3
x 10

0
Δ P T ie2 (pu)

-5

Integral controller [31]

-10 ANFIS controller [12]
hBFOA-PSO optimized controller [32 ]
Proposed IWO optimized controller
-15
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Time (sec)

Figure 13. Tie-line power deviation in area 2 for 1% SLPs in all areas.
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MODELLING AND SIMULATION
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes on contributors
Somanath Mishra received B.Tech degree in electrical engineer-
ing from Seemanta Engineering College, Mayurbhanj, Odisha,
India and M.Tech degree in power system engineering from C.
V. Raman College of Engineering, Bhubaneswar, India. He is
currently pursuing his Ph.D degree in VSSUT Burla, Odisha,
India. His current research interests include power generation,
load frequency control of multi area power systems with non-
conventional energy sources using intelligent techniques.
A. K. Barisal received his B.E in Electrical Engineering from
UCE Burla (now VSSUT Burla), his ME (Eng.) in Power
systems from BESU, Howrah (Now IIEST) and his PhD
(Eng.) from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He has published
over 100 articles in different journals and conferences. His
research interests include economic load dispatch,
Hydrothermal Scheduling and soft computing applications to
power system operation and control. He is currently working
as a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering,
College of Engineering & Technology, Bhubaneswar, India.
B. Chitti Babu received Ph.D. degree in Electrical
Engineering from the National Institute of Technology
Rourkela (NITR), Rourkela, India, in 2012. He was an
Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical
Engineering, NITR, from 2007 to 2013. He had Post-
Doctoral research appointments with the Wroclaw
University of Science and Technology, Wroclaw, Poland,
from December 2013 to June 2014, and with the VSB-
Technical University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic,
from September 2014 to September 2015. Both of these
appointments were sponsored by the European
Commission, UK. He was an Assistant Professor in faculty
of engineering, University of Nottingham (U.K) Malaysia
Campus, Malaysia from Sep 2016- June 2018. Since June
2018, he serves as an Assistant Professor in Indian Institute
of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing,
Kancheepuram, Chennai, India He serves as an editorial
board member of many peer reviewed journals,
particularly IET Renewable Power Generation, Intr. Trans.
On Electrical Energy Systems, IEEE Access. Energy Sources
(Part-A), Energy & Environment, AUTOMATIKA, Inter.
Journal of Modelling & Simulation. His current research
interests include power electronics applications in smart dis-
tribution grids containing renewable energy sources.
ORCID
A. K. Barisal http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7991-8214
References
[1] Kundur P. Power system stability and control.
New York (NY): TMH; 1994.
201
[2] Cohn N. Some aspects of tie-line bias control on
interconnected power systems. Am Inst Electr Eng
Trans. 1957;75:1415–1436.
[3] Elgerd OI, Fosha CE. Optimum megawatt-frequency
control of multi-area electric energy systems. IEEE
Trans Power Apparatus Syst. 1970;89(4):556–563.
[4] Ibraheem KP, Kothari DP. Recent philosophies of
automatic generation control strategies in power
systems. IEEE Trans Power Syst. 2005;20(1):346–357.
[5] Rubaai A, Udo V. Self-tuning LFC: multilevel adaptive
approach. Proc Inst Electr Eng Gen Trans Distrib.
1994;141(4):285–290.
[6] Chang CS, Fu W. Area load frequency control using
fuzzy gain scheduling of PI controllers. Electr Power
Syst Res. 1997;42:145–152.
[7] Cam E, Kocaarslan I. Load frequency control in two
area power system using fuzzy logic controller. Energy
Convers Manage. 2005;46(2):233–243.
[8] Yesil E, Guzelkaya M, Eksin I. Sef-tuning fuzzy PID
type load and frequency controller. Energy Convers
Manage. 2004;45:377–390.
[9] Ahamed TPI, Rao PSN, Sastry PS. A reinforcement
learning approach to automatic generation control.
Electr Power Syst Res. 2002;63:9–26.
[10] Demiroren A, Sengor NS, Zeynelgil HL. Automatic
generation control by using ANN technique. Electr
Power Compon Syst. 2001;29(10):883–896.
[11] Khuntia SR, Panda S. Simulation study for automatic
generation control of a multi-area power system by
ANFIS approach. Appl Soft Comput. 2012;12:333–341.
[12] Chang CS, Fu W, Wen F. Load frequency control using
genetic-algorithm based fuzzy gain scheduling of PI
controllers. Electr Power Syst Res. 1998;26(1):39–52.
[13] Juang C-F, Lu C-F Power system load frequency control
by evolutionary fuzzy PI controller. In: Proceedings of
IEEE international conference on fuzzy systems.
Budapest, Hungary; 2004: p. 715–719.
[14] Karnavas YL, Papadopulos DP. AGC for autonomous
power system using combined intelligent techniques.
Electr Power Syst Res. 2002;62(3):225–239.
[15] Ghosal SP. Optimization of PID gains by particle
swarm optimization in fuzzy based automatic genera-
tion control. Electr Power Syst Res. 2004;72:203–212.
[16] Chaturvedi DK, Satsangi PS, Kalra PK. Load frequency
control: a generalized neural network approach. Electr
Power Energy Syst. 1999;21:405–415.
[17] Ibraheem KP. Current status of the Indian power
system and dynamic performance enhancement of
hydro-power systems with asynchronous tie-lines.
Electr Power Compon Syst. 2003;31(7):605–626.
[18] Ibraheem KP, Khatoon S. Effect of parameter uncer-
tainties on dynamic performance of an interconnected
power system incorporating AC/DC links. Int J Power
Energy Syst. 2005;25(3):198–210.
[19] Ibraheem N, Bhatti TS. AGC of two area power system
interconnected by AC/DC links with diverse sources in
each area. Int J Electr Power Energy Syst. 2014;55:
297–304.
[20] Parmar KPS, Majhi S, Kothari DP. Load frequency
control of a realistic power system with multi-source
power generation. Int J Electr Power Energy Syst.
2012;42:426–433.
202 S. MISHRA ET AL.
[21] Rout UK, Sahu RK, Panda S. Design and analysis of
differential evolution algorithm based automatic gen-
eration control for interconnected power system. Ain
Shams Eng J. 2013;4(3):409–421.
[22] Mohanty B, Panda S, Hota PK. Controller parameters
tuning of differential evolution algorithm and its appli-
cation to load frequency control of multi-source power
System. Int J Electr Power Energy Syst. 2014;54:77–85.
[23] Gozde H, Taplamacioglu MC, Kocaarslan I. Comparative
performance analysis of Artificial Bee Colony algorithm in
automatic generation control for interconnected reheat
thermal power system. Int J Electr Power Energy Syst.
2012;42:167–178.
[24] Mehrabian AR, Lucas C. A novel numerical optimiza-
tion algorithm inspired from weed colonization,
Elsevier. Ecol Inf. 2006;1(4):355–366.
[25] Sepehri HR, Lucas C A recommender system based on
invasive weed optimization algorithm. In: IEEE congress
on evolutionary computation. Singapore, CEC; 2007.
[26] Karimkashi S, Kishk Ahmed A. Invasive weed optimi-
zation and its features in electromagnetics. IEEE Trans
Antennas Propag. 2010;58(4):1269–1278.
[27] Ahmadi M, Mojallali H, Izadi-Zamanabadi R. State
estimation of nonlinear stochastic systems using
a novel meta-heuristic particle filter. Swarm Evol
Comput. 2012;4(6):44–53.
[28] Saravanan B, Vasudevan ER, Kothari DP. Unit commit-
ment problem solution using invasive weed optimization
algorithm. Int J Electr Power Energy Syst. 2014;55:21–28.
[29] Barisal AK, Prusty RC. Large scale economic dispatch
of power systems using oppositional invasive weed
optimization. Appl Soft Comput. 2015;29:122–137.
[30] Nanda J, Parida M, Kalam A Automatic generation control
of a multi-area power system with conventional integral
controllers. Proc. AUPEC 2006, TS13 (2)—Load and
Frequency Control. Melbourne, Australia; 2006.
[31] Panda S, Mohanty B, Hota PK. Hybrid BFOA-PSO
algorithm for automatic generation control of linear
and nonlinear interconnected power systems. Appl
Soft Comput. 2013;13(12):4718–4730.
[32] Menghal PM, Jaya Laxmi A. Modelling, simulation
& analysis of induction motor using artificial intel-
ligent controller. Int J Model Simulat. 2016;36(4):
120–135.
[33] Mohanty B. Performance analysis of moth flame opti-
mization algorithm for AGC system. Int J Model
Simulat. 2018. DOI:10.1080/02286203.1476799
[34] Nguyen NS, Nguyen DK. Parameter estimation of
Pendubot model using modified differential evolution
algorithm. Int J Model Simulat. 2018. DOI:10.1080/
02286203.2018.1525938
Appendix A. Nominal parameter of the two
area multi source power system [19]
f = 60 Hz; B1 = B2 = 0.425 pu MW/Hz;PR = 2000
MW (rating),PL ¼ 1840 MW (nominal loading);
R1 ¼ R2 ¼ R3 ¼ 2.4 Hz/pu MW; Tsg ¼ 0.08 s; Tr ¼ 10 s;
Kr ¼ 0.3; Tt ¼ 0.3 s; KT ¼ 0.6; KH = 0.25;
KG = 0.15;Tgh ¼ 0.2 s; Trh ¼ 28.75 s; Trs ¼ 5 s; TW ¼ 1 s;
b ¼ 0.05; c ¼ 1 s;X ¼ 0.6 s; Y ¼ 1 s; Tcr ¼ 0.3 s; Tfc ¼ 0.23s;
Tcd ¼ 0.2 s; Tps ¼ 20 s; Kps ¼ 120 Hz/pu MW;Tdc ¼ 0.2 s;
Kdc ¼ 1; T12 ¼ 0.0433 pu; a12 ¼ -1.
Appendix B. Nominal parameter of the three
area hydro thermal power system [11,30,31]
f = 60 Hz; B1 = B2 = B3 = 0.425 pu MW/Hz; R1 = R2 = R3 = 2.4
Hz/pu MW; TG1 = TG2 = 0.08 s; Tr1 = Tr2 = 10.0 s;
TT1 = TT2 = 0.3 s; TW = 1.0 s; TR = 5 s; Nominal power
system parameters: KPS1 = KPS2 = KPS3 = 120 Hz/p.u. MW;
TPS1 = TPS2 = TPS3 = 20 s; T12 = T23 = T31 = 0.086 pu;
a12 = a23 = a31 = −1.