Frequency stabilisation of a hybrid two-area power system by a novel quasi-oppositional harmony search algorithm

Modelling, simulation and performance analysis of a two-area thermal-hybrid distributed generation (HDG) power system having different sources of power generation has been carried out in this study. The thermal power plant is consisting of re-heat type thermal system, whereas the HDG system includes the combination of wind turbine generator and diesel generator. In the studied model, superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) device is considered in both the areas. Additionally, a flexible ac transmission system (FACTS) device such as static synchronous series compensator (SSSC) is also considered in the tie-line. The different tunable parameters of the proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers, SMES and SSSC are optimised using a novel quasi-oppositional harmony search (QOHS) algorithm. Optimisation performance of the novel QOHS algorithm is established while comparing its performance with binary coded genetic algorithm. From the simulation work it is observed that with the inclusion of SMES in both the areas, the system performances toward the achievement of minimal frequency and tie-line power oscillations are promising under different types of input loading perturbations. It is further revealed from the simulation results that the installation of an expensive FACTS device such as SSSC does not yield any significant improvement to the system performance.