GA optimized PID controllers for automatic generation control of two area reheat thermal systems under deregulated environment

This paper proposes for a genetic algorithm (GA) tuned PID controllers for automatic generation control of two - area reheat thermal system under deregulated environment. A PID controller with its inherent superb capabilities of containing peak deviation, steady state errors and oscillatory behaviour of a dynamic system is an obvious choice for automatic generation control of interconnected power systems. The main issue towards the use of a PID controller is how to optimize the three gains of the controller. The trial and error method of finding the gains by indirect optimization using ISE technique with an appropriate performance index appears to be not wise enough because of its space complexity. GA appears to be the right choice in finding the optimum gains for the controllers. Hence, in this work, the gains of the PID controllers are optimized using floating point GA. The results of the GA optimized PID controllers on a two area reheat thermal system are compared with those with optimized through trial and error method. The GA optimized controllers are found to be superior in terms of peak transient deviation, settling times, and dynamic oscillations.