Comparative Study of Meta-Heuristic and Classical Techniques for Automatic Generation Control of a Multi-Source Single-Area Hydro-Thermal-Gas Power System

Abstract

The PID controller still remains a widely used and very effective means of achieving stability in control systems. Generally, the performance of the controller is determined by the proportional, integral and derivative gains of the controller. The classical techniques: Ziegler-Nichols (ZN) open loop method; ZN closed loop method; Chien-Hrones-Reswick (C-H-R) load rejection method; and meta-heuristic technique: the fuzzy logic algorithm, are used to determine the tuning parameters of the PID controller in this study. The performance comparison of these controllers is done for automatic generation control (AGC) of a multi-source single-area hydrothermal-gas power system. In such power systems, each source has a participation factor that determines its contribution to total power generation. The root mean square error (RMSE) is deployed to determine the proportionate balance of each generator's output with its corresponding participation factor. The performance comparison of the controllers using Simulink/MATLAB shows that the fuzzy-PID controller achieved the most proportionate generation balance.