Application of Ant Colony Optimizer in Thermal Power System for Frequency Management

This chapter proposes the application of the ant colony optimization (ACO) technique in a thermal power system for system frequency stability. An unconnected and interconnected thermal power network is considered for investigation. The frequency stability is analyzed by a secondary controller (Proportional (P) integral (I) derivative (D) (PID)). To enhance the controlling performance of the PID controller, the gains are fine-tuned by the ACO. The ITAE (integral time absolute error) objective function is involved in the at the time of tuning gain parameters. The controlling performance of the ACO – PID controller is compared with particle swarm optimization (PSO) and genetic algorithm (GA) methods. The examination was conducted suddenly with a 1% load demand. The entire study is conducted in a MATLAB Simulink working environment. At the end of the study, it is concluded that the ACO technique is superior to other methods in system frequency oscillation control. ACO provided quick stability and minimal peaks in the system frequency.