Renewable sources with virtual inertia penetration in multi area interconnected AGC using a modified MPC controller

Abstract

The challenge of controlling frequency deviation becomes more difficult as the complexity of a power plant increases. The robustness of the controller has a major impact on the stability of a complex power system (CPS). Due to the hybridization of CPS basic Automatic Generation Control (AGC) controllers (PID, FOPID, and TID), they are insufficient to give optimal performance to a plant. This requires a robust controller. So, a modified MPC controller has been proposed and evaluated by comparing it with several existing controllers, which gives optimal performance in terms of overshoot, undershoot, and settling time and improves its performance approximately 45%. This research discusses a combined AGC model and control for a three-area CPS, where each producing area consists of a thermal plant, a Diesel power plant, and a Solar Thermal Power Plant (STPP). The results of the modified MPC are superior to those of the basic controller compared to several existing controllers. An improved version of Sea-horse Optimization (SHO) has been proposed to optimize the different controller settings. The superiority of the SHO is shown by a comparison with some well-known, current meta-heuristic methods. The higher penetration levels of renewable energy sources (RESs) reduced system inertia which further deteriorate frequency response in CPS. To overcome these challenges, virtual inertia (VI) has been implemented with MPC. VI is applied to improve the performance of the AGC of the interconnected CPS along with emphasizing the nature of intermittent RESs of PV and wind energy. The thorough study findings provide compelling evidence for the effectiveness and efficiency of the recommended control strategies and also point to the possibility of applying them in actual power systems to improve stability and performance.