Load Frequency Control for a Two-Area
HVAC/HVDC Power System
Using Hybrid Genetic Algorithm Controller
M. Mahdavian1, N. Wattanapongsakorn3, M.Azadeh2, A.Ayati2, M. Bayati Poudeh1,M. Jabbari2, S.Bahadory1
1
Department of Electrical Engineering, Naein Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran
2
Department of Electrical Engineering, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan, Iran
3
Department of Computer Engineering, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi
126 Pracha-Utid Rd., Bangmod, Toongkru, Bangkok, 10140 Thailand
Abstract—In this paper, a hybrid load frequency controller for a
network with two-area interconnected power system is presented
to damp the deviations in frequency and tie line power due to
load changes in each time. The system includes DC control
interacting with the conventional AC area controls. The stability
of the network in these two areas is controlled by a new control
method. This method is a Model Reference Adaptive Control
method (MRAC) based on the combination of Linear Quadratic
Regulator (LQR) control and pole placement that are regulated
by a Genetic Algorithm (GA). Digital simulation results are
obtained to prove the effectiveness of these hybrid controllers
over the load frequency control system.
Keywords- linear quadratic regulator; genetic algorithm; model
reference adaptive control method; load frequency control; pole
placement.
I. INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, power systems with several industrial and
commercial loads and generators need to operate at a constant
frequency. Since power systems are interconnected systems,
the power swings resulting from transient instability in one area
can consequently cause power swings in another area [1] of the
system. When the load increases in an area and the faults or
disturbances appear, the network’s stability maybe affected or
lost [2]-[3]. Therefore, the stability design in the multi-area
system is important in practice. Since the control of active
power system is related to the control of frequency, while the
control of reactive power is related to control of voltage, the
stability of frequency and voltage are important in identifying
the quality of power supply, and the control of active power
and reactive power has a basic and important role to satisfy
application of power systems. The frequency of system is
dependent on active power, and thence the frequency is a
general factor in the network, any change in active power in
any part of the network can reflect the whole of network, as a
change in frequency which can be harmful [1]. In power
systems, high voltage direct-current (HVDC) power
transmission systems and technologies associated with the
flexible alternating current transmission system (FACTS)
continue to advance as they make their ways to commercial
applications [6]-[9]. In power systems, Automatic Generation
Control (AGC) is also one of the most important issues in
electric power system design and operation. AGC is a feedback
978-1-4673-2025-2/12/$31.00 ©2012 IEEE
control system that regulates the power output of electric
generators to keep a specified system frequency and scheduled
interchange and provides automatic variation of generation set
points on the speed governors to keep system frequency within
scheduled values [5]. The area control error (ACE) is
calculated based on the operational mode selected by the
dispatcher in the system as Constant Net Interchange, Constant
Frequency, Tie Line Bias, Tie Line Bias plus Automatic Time
Error Correction.
In order to get a better transient performance of the system,
several control strategies have been applied to improve the
automatic generation control performance. Using proper tuning
of various controller parameters can aim to achieve
minimization of different performance, indices.
In this article, an optimum Linear Quadratic Regulator
(LQR) is designed which can improve the overall power
system dynamic stability. However, unfortunately there is no
specific method in the LQR design and choosing the
coefficients is based on trial and error. The best constant values
for state feedback matrix are laboriously obtained through trial
and error, although time consuming. So Genetic Algorithm
(GA), as an optimization method, is employed to find the best
coefficients for the LQR controller. Therefore this paper shows
the model of multi-system with its practical parameters and
analytical methods of stability are used to get good
performance. Also an optimum pole placement controller is
designed for this system that can improve the overall power
system dynamic performance. GA as an optimal method is
employed to find the best values for pole placement controller
within a very short time of computation.
Next section describes power system structure with two
areas and its state-space model is discussed in Section III. The
proposed control algorithm is presented in detail in Section IV.
The computer simulation results are presented and discussed in
Section V. Finally, Section VI concludes this paper. The
various parameters of the system and controllers are listed in
Appendix.
II. POWER SYSTEM STRUCTURE WITH TWO AREAS
The structure of two-area system with tie lines, which
connects two large AC networks, is shown in Fig. 1, and each
area can have some generators and loads.

Figure 1. A network with two areas system (generators, loads and tie line
connection)
The power system proposed is composed of two power
system areas interconnected by parallel HVAC and HVDC tie
lines. Each AC power system is represented by thermal
generation (turbine and generator), load area (Pload), and
system interconnection bus. The HVDC link includes two
converter stations, one performing as a rectifier at the sending
end, and the other performing as the inverter at the receiving
end [6].
The basic control system includes the speed governing
system, the AGC control system and the DC system control. A
supplementary control is added, to the basic control scheme, to
introduce a new control signal to the DC system [3-4].
III. MODELING THE SYSTEM IN STATE SPACE MODEL
Block diagram of the purposed two area power system with
two tie lines is shown in Fig. 2. In this model, the
supplementary controller interacts with the conventional AGC
controller to restore system frequency and net power
interchange to scheduled values (zero steady state area control
error) [1].
Figure 2. A two-area system, with HVAC and HVDC tie lines
In this paper, the linear model of the system shown in Fig. 2 is
used.
X = AX + BU (1)
Where A is the state coefficient matrix and B is the
disturbance coefficient matrix. In this system, the state
variables are as the following.
x = [Δf1 ΔG1 Δg1 Δf 2 ΔG2 Δg 2 ΔPAC ΔPDC
Δv1 Δv2 Δv3 ]
where, Δf1 (Frequency deviation in area1); ΔG1 (Deviation in
generated power, area1); Δg1 (Deviation in governor position,
area1); Δf2 (Frequency deviation in area2); ΔG2 (Deviation in
generated power, area 2); Δg2 (Deviation in governor position,
area2); ΔPAC (AC power interchange deviation); ΔPDC (DC
power interchange deviation); v1 (Control signal, area 1); v2
(Control signal, area 2); v3 (Control signal DC system).
In addition, the inputs are as follows.
u = [ ΔPL1 ΔPL1 ]
where, ΔPL1 is the change in load (disturbance) in area 1), and
ΔPL2 is the change in load (disturbance) in area 2).
IV. THE HYBRID CONTROL METHOD
A. Adaptive Control
The adaptive control is used for the automatic adjustment in
real-time of the process parameters. It is employed when the
parameters of a process to control are difficult to determine or
when the time is varying [10]. The synthesis of an adaptive
controller imposes nearly all the time in the following phases:
• Specification of the required performances.
• Definition of the control structure or the regulator type.
• Conception of the mechanism of adaptation with
optimal values.
B. Linear Quadratic Regulator Method
It is possible to improve the power system dynamic
performance by employing the LQR control method.
Application of the LQR involves choosing the positive
definite state and control input matrices, Q and R that provide
satisfactory closed-loop performance. The main method of
setting this controller is based on trial and error, which is time
consuming [11].
For a system in the form of (eq.1) the LQR method
determines the K matrix of the equation (eq.3) to minimize the
(eq.2). R and Q matrices express the relation between error
and energy expense rate. The design of the optimal LQR is to
find the control gain, K such that the performance is
minimized for the system represented by (eq.2).
∞ ∞
J = ∫0 ( X T QX + X T K T RKX )dt = ∫0 ( X T (Q + K T RK ) X )dt (2)
U (t ) = − KX (t ) (3)
The control law that minimizes J is given by linear-state
feedback.
C. Pole Assignment Designing Method
The usual methods employed up to now are based on the
root geometrical models in which only the output of the system
is used as feedback into a dynamic controller. In this part, the
advanced control designing based on state variables is used.
One of the methods of advanced control, in which state
feedback is used, is called pole assignment [12]. In pole
assignment method, the designer is able to place the system
specified equation roots in the desired place on the complex
coordinate plane. These results lead to a regulator with constant
gain, K, function. In (eq.1) by considering the state feedback
control as (3), where K is a 1×n vector with constant feedback
gains; the compensated system specified equation is obtained
as follows (eq.4).
sI-A + BK = 0
With assumption that the system is expressed as in its
canonical form as:
⎡ x1 ⎤ ⎡ 0 1 ... 0 0 ⎤ ⎡ x1 ⎤ ⎡ 0 ⎤
⎢x ⎥ ⎢ 0
⎢ 2 ⎥ ⎢ 0 ... 0 0 ⎥⎥ ⎢⎢ x 2 ⎥⎥ ⎢⎢ 0 ⎥⎥
⎢ ... ⎥ = ⎢ ... ... ... ... ... ⎥ ⎢ ... ⎥ + ⎢...⎥u (t )
⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥⎢ ⎥ ⎢ ⎥
⎢ xn −1 ⎥ ⎢ 0 0 ... 0 1 ⎥ ⎢ xn −1 ⎥ ⎢ 0 ⎥
⎢⎣ x n ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣− a 0 − a1 ... − a n − 2 − a n−1 ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣ xn ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣ 1 ⎥⎦
By replacing A, B matrices in (eq.5), the compensated
equation for the control system will be as follows.
sI - A + BK = s n + (an−1 + kn )s n−1 + + (a1 − k2 )s + (a0 + k1 ) = 0 (6)
The aim of designing is to determine the K gain function in
a way that the equation of control system is equal to the desired
specified equation.
D. Genetic Algorithm
In this paper, the GA is employed to find the best weighting
matrices [12]. The Genetic Algorithm Procedure is:
i. [Start] Generate random population of n chromosomes
ii. [Fitness] Evaluate the fitness of each chromosome in the
population
iii. [New population] Create a new population by repeating
following steps until the new population is complete
iv. [Selection] Select two parent chromosomes from a
population according to their fitness
v. [Crossover] With a crossover probability cross over the
parents to form a new offspring (children). If no
crossover was performed, offspring is an exact copy of
parents.
vi. [Mutation] With a mutation probability mutate new
offspring at each locus (position in chromosome).
vii. [Accepting] Place new offspring in a new population
viii. [Replace] Use new generated population for a further
run of algorithm
ix. [Test] If the end condition is satisfied, stop, and return
the best solution in current population
[Loop] Go to step ii.
E. Genetic Algorithm Based On LQR
Therefore it was decided to realize an adaptive LQR
control. In general, the parameters of the regulating LQR are
laboriously obtained through trial and error, which is time
consuming. However, in this paper we use a Genetic algorithm
to find the best values for LQR controller's parameters using a
very short time [13] even though our controlled system is a
very complex nonlinear system. In this control method,
reference model supplies the expected system performance and
the GA optimizes the LQR. In this system, the optimized
parameters are q1, q2, …, q11 and r1, r2 of the LQR control.
They are encoded to binary bit strings. The indexes of the
active current characteristics are required as: Mp < 0.5%, ts <1
msec, where Mp is the overshoot and ts is a settling time. The
reference model takes the form as in (eq.7).
1
G ( s) = (7)
(4) s + 1000
The GA parameter settings are: Population size M=20,
Crossover rate Pc=0.8, Mute rate Pm=0.001, the numbers of
generation is 500. The fittest of LQR parameters is applied to
the controlled system, and a good control result is obtained.
The system control block diagram is shown in Fig. 3. In this
(5) structure, it is shown that the feedback gains, K1, K2, …, K11,
are tuned with notice to the reference output and actual output
by the genetic algorithm.
Figure 3. Genetic Model Reference Adaptive Control based on LQR and
pole placement
F. Genetic Algorithm Based On Pole Placement
An adaptive pole placement control described in this paper
with its parameters for regulating pole placement is obtained
through Genetic algorithm. GA is employed to find the best
values for pole placement controller's parameters in a very
short time. In this control method, reference model supplies the
expected performance of system, GA optimizes the pole
placement. The indexes of the active current characteristics are
required as LQR-GA. The reference model is (eq.8).
1 (8)
G ( s) =
s + 500
The Pole placement-GA setting is the same as in the LQR-
GA method.
V. THE SIMULATION RESULTS
A typical example of two area-power system is considered
for the simulation and the values of the different parameters of
the system are given in Appendix. The simulation results are
presented for different interconnection types and control
system characteristics of the two-area power system. The step
load disturbance applied to the model system in area 1 was 5%
of area capacity for all the simulations.
Figs. 4 -5, show the frequency deviation response in area 1
in these two hybrid methods. By using these controllers in DC
power, the frequency deviation response is damped rapidly in [5] L. Pingkang, Z. Hengjun and L. Yuyun, “Genetic algorithm optimization
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AC-DC tie lines, AGC, controlled DC power
1
AC-DC tie lines, AGC and constannt DC power September 1991.
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Frequency deviation area 1 (Hz)

0 ISBN: 0780334558, 2000.

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Povh, B. Bisewski, W. Long, “Role of HVDC transmission in future
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0 5 10 15 20 25 [10] J. Lei, J. Jiang, “The model reference adaptive control based on the
Time (sec)
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Figure 4. Frequency deviation response in area1 by LQR –GA controller 2, pp. 783 – 787, 1997.
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AC/DC tie lines, AGC, Adaptive control based on new LQR approach” IEE Proceedings-Generation,
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Frequency deviation area 1 (Hz)

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Wiley, 2004.
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0 control”, IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control, pp. 219-
224, 1994.
-0.05

-0.1
AC tie lines, AGC
APPENDIX
-0.15 For the purpose of this study, the characteristics of thee two
-0.2
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
area interconnected system are assumed as follows.
Time (sec)
fn=60 Hz, H1=0.0083, H2=0.0125, D1=0.16, D2=0.33 R1=2.4, R2=1.3,
Figure 5. Frequency deviation response in area1 by pole placement –GA H31=0.3, H32=0.5, H41=0.08, H42=0.13 HDC=0.05, P12=1.08, kp1=0.3,
controller kp2=0.5, ki1=0.6, ki2=0.8 kp=5, ki=12, B1=0.325, B2=0.5

VI. CONCLUSIONS
In this study, the hybrid system of controllers is used for an
Automatic Generation Control (AGC) of interconnected power
system. The stability of this two-area interconnected power
system was significantly improved by using the hybrid LQR
control. This system of control is arranged by Genetic
Algorithm. Thus, a new control method (the Model Reference
Adaptive Control method based on the combination of them) is
presented. By using this method, damping of the deviations in
this system is increased and the oscillation in frequency of the
system responses is reduced into the possible limits. The results
show that the proposed pole placement - GA method can obtain
good quality solution with high efficiency.

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