Controller parameters tuning of water cycle algorithm and its application to load frequency control of multi-area power systems using TD-TI cascade control

In this study, a nature-inspired optimization tool called the water cycle algorithm (WCA) and its practical application to efficiently design a cascade controller for two area interconnected power system model is put forward to address the issues in load frequency control (LFC). The cascade control (CC) structure is one of the most effective controllers for improving the performance of a control scheme in power applications, particularly when disturbances occur. In this paper, a well-systematized combination of the WCA and a well-designed cascade tilt-derivative tilt-integral (TD-TI) cascade controller is introduced, and an error performance function, for example, the integral time absolute error, is taken. The proposed WCA-based effective TD-TI, TID, and PID strategy are executed as one broadly two area multi-source model with/without HVDC link under many scenarios to verify the effectiveness of the proposed system under a high-load perturbation and some critical parameters associated with the interconnected power system. Simulation results reveal that the proposed technique provides superior performance to that of newly published schemes such as many objective/PID, TLBO/PID, IPA/TID and IGWO/Fuzzy-PID controllers. The dynamic investigation is also completed with consideration of the random load pattern, which sufficiently reveals the superior performance of the WCA/TD-TI scheme.