This article compares the accelerated PID (PIDD2) controller and the fractional accelerated PID (PIDDα) controller toward the performance amelioration of the automatic voltage regulator (AVR) system. As, in practice, a derivative controller is always employed with a low pass filter (LPF), the same is also considered here. A time domain-based strategy considering the minimization of error functions by employing optimization algorithms is used for the parameter estimation of PIDD2 and PIDDα controller. A statistical study is carried out between the Whale optimization algorithm (WOA), Grey wolf optimizer (GWO), and the Ant lion optimization (ALO) considering different cost functions to identify the best possible algorithm and error function. The simulation studies reveal the marginal supremacy of the PIDDα controller over the PIDD2 controller in regulating the transient performance of the AVR system. The robustness of the proposed controllers is also explored regarding their reference tracking and disturbance rejection capabilities.