Application of Firefly Algorithm for Load Frequency Control of Multi-area Interconnected Power System

Abstract—In this article, a firefly algorithm is proposed for load frequency control of multi-area power systems. Initially a two equal area non-reheat thermal system is considered and the optimum gains of the proportional integral/proportional integral derivative controller are optimized employing the firefly algorithm technique. The superiority of the proposed approach is demonstrated by comparing the results with some recently published techniques such as genetic algorithm, bacteria foraging optimization algorithm, differential evolution, particle swarm optimization, hybrid bacteria foraging optimization algorithm-particle swarm optimization, and Ziegler–Nichols-based controllers for the same interconnected power system. Further, the proposed approach is extended to a three-unequal-area thermal system considering generation rate constraint and governor dead-band. Investigations reveal on comparison that proportional integral derivative controller provides much better response compared to integral and proportional integral controllers. Additionally, robustness analysis is carried out by varying the operating load condition and time constants of speed governor, turbine, and inertia constant in the range of +50 to –50% from their nominal values as well as the size and position of step load perturbation to demonstrate the robustness of the proposed firefly algorithm optimized proportional integral derivative controller.