Application of non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II technique for optimal FACTS-based controller design

Design of an optimal controller requires optimization of multiple performance measures that are often noncommensurable and competing with each other. Design of such a controller is indeed a multi-objective optimization problem. Non-dominated sorting in genetic algorithms-II (NSGA-II) is a popular non-domination based genetic algorithm for solving multi-objective optimization problems. This paper investigates the application of NSGA-II technique for the design of a flexible AC transmission system (FACTS)-based controller. The design objective is to improve the stability of the power system with minimum control effort. The proposed technique is applied to generate Pareto set of global optimal solutions to the given multi-objective optimization problem. Further, a fuzzy-based membership value assignment method is employed to choose the best compromise solution from the obtained Pareto solution set. Further, a detailed analysis on the selection of control signals (both local and remote signals) on the effectiveness of the proposed controller is carried out and simulation results are presented under various loading conditions and disturbances to show the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed approach.