Artificial bee colony algorithm for optimal design of power system stabilizer

A newly developed heuristic global optimization algorithm, artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm, is applied for simultaneous coordinated tuning of the power system stabilizers (PSSs) in the multi-machine power system. ABC is a population based optimization algorithm inspired by the foraging behavior of bee colony and proven its superior capabilities, such as faster convergence and better global minimum achievement. To investigate the robustness and ability of the proposed algorithm in damping stabilizers design, a 2-area 4-machine system under different operating conditions is considered. The performance of the proposed ABC is compared with the genetic algorithm (GA) through eigenvalue analysis and nonlinear time-domain simulation. The simulation studies show that the stabilizers designed by ABC perform better than those by GA in damping the power system low-frequency oscillations and enhance greatly the dynamic stability of the power system.