AGC of a multi area gas-thermal system using firefly optimized IDF controller

This paper presents the automatic generation control (AGC) of a unequal three area gas-thermal-thermal system. The thermal systems are provided with single reheat turbines and have generation rate constraints (GRC) of 3% per minute. GRC of 20%/minute is provided in gas plant. Secondary controller gains and other parameters are simultaneously optimized using a evolutionary computational technique called Firefly algorithm (FA). A maiden attempt has been made to examine and highlight the application of integral derivative controller coupled with a filter (IDF) for the purpose of effective AGC. Performance of several classical controllers are evaluated and compared to that of IDF controller. This comparison clearly reveals the superiority of the latter with respect to the former commonly used supplementary controllers. A new configuration of application of IDF controller in area1 with integral (I) controller in other areas is investigated which may provide an effective but economic solution to the poor performance of the popular I controllers in the system under investigation.