Electric Power Components and Systems

ISSN: 1532-5008 (Print) 1532-5016 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uemp20

Optimized Control Scheme for Frequency/

Power Regulation of Microgrid for Fault Tolerant
Operation

Alaa M. Abdel-hamed, Abou El-Eyoun K. M. Ellissy, Amged S. El-Wakeel &

Almoataz Y. Abdelaziz

To cite this article: Alaa M. Abdel-hamed, Abou El-Eyoun K. M. Ellissy, Amged S. El-Wakeel
& Almoataz Y. Abdelaziz (2016) Optimized Control Scheme for Frequency/Power Regulation
of Microgrid for Fault Tolerant Operation, Electric Power Components and Systems, 44:13,
1429-1440, DOI: 10.1080/15325008.2016.1172282

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15325008.2016.1172282

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 Electric Power Components and Systems, 44(13):1429–1440, 2016
Copyright C Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

ISSN: 1532-5008 print / 1532-5016 online

DOI: 10.1080/15325008.2016.1172282

Optimized Control Scheme for Frequency/Power

Regulation of Microgrid for Fault Tolerant Operation
Alaa M. Abdel-hamed,1 Abou El-Eyoun K. M. Ellissy,1 Amged S. El-Wakeel,2
and Almoataz Y. Abdelaziz3
1
High Institute of Engineering, El Shorouk Academy, Cairo, Egypt
2
Department of Electrical Power and Energy, Military Technical College, Cairo, Egypt
3
Department of Electrical Power and Machines, Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

CONTENTS
Abstract—This article investigates the operation of a microgrid sys-
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1. Introduction tem through a novel control scheme. The proposed microgrid system
2. Complete System Modeling employs various autonomous generation systems, including photo-
voltaic, wind, a diesel engine, a fuel cell, an aqua electrolyzer, and
3. FA a battery. A simulation model for this microgrid system was devel-
4. Control Objectives and Optimization-based Tuning of the oped using MATLAB/SIMULINK (The MathWorks, Natick, Mas-
PID Controller Parameters sachusetts, USA). A proportion-integral-derivative control scheme
is employed, and the parameters of proportion-integral-derivative
5. Simulation Results
controllers for various controllable sources are tuned with a firefly
6. Conclusion algorithm. This is done using a new proposed weighted goal attain-
References ment method for achieving improved and fault-tolerant operation. The
proposed control scheme shows better performance over the classi-
cal proportion-integral-derivative and bacterial foraging–proportion-
integral-derivative controller in both transient and steady-state condi-
tions. The firefly algorithm–proportion-integral-derivative controller
also shows stronger robustness properties against system perturba-
tions, disturbances, and faults than that with other controller struc-
tures. The robustness is a highly desirable property in such a scenario
since many components of the microgrid may be switched on/off or
may run at lower/higher power output at different time instants.

Keywords: microgrid, proportion-integral-derivative control, firefly
algorithm, bacterial foraging optimization, generation rate constraint,
photovoltaic, diesel engine, weighted goal attainment method, distributed
generation
Received 5 October 2015; accepted 12 March 2016
Address correspondence to Prof. Almoataz Abdelaziz, Department of
Electrical Power and Machines, Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams
University, Cairo, 11517, Egypt. E-mail: almoatazabdelaziz@hotmail.com
Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online
at www.tandfonline.com/uemp.
1. INTRODUCTION
A microgrid (MG) is a small-scale power grid composed of dis-
tributed generation (DG), distributed storage (DS), and loads
[1]. There is now growing interest in MGs in many countries
because of their relatively low environmental impact, they are
able to meet the diverse needs of end users, restructuring of
the electric power industry, and restrictions on the extension
of power transmission and distribution facilities [2].
Generally MGs operate in grid-connected mode; however,
serious changes, such as faults and large frequency oscillations
in the main grid, may force them to disconnect from the main
grid and operate in island mode [3, 4]. An islanded MG is
an independent power system with a small equivalent inertia
constant; thus, a subtle disturbance may cause large frequency
deviation [5, 6].

1429
 1430 Electric Power Components and Systems, Vol. 44 (2016), No. 13
The MG uses small electric power generation systems lo-
cated near consumers and load centers that provide them reli-
able source of electric power, reducing distribution and trans-
mission losses [7, 8].
One of the most important criteria in MG control is the bal-
ance between power generation and demand in both operation
modes [1, 9]. Due to the variation in power from renewable
sources and load demand, there are frequency and power fluc-
tuations in the MG. To overcome this, controllable sources are
used to supply power to balance out the increase in load de-
mand or the reduction in power generation. However, due to
the delay in the output characteristics of controllable sources,
the frequency oscillations are present in the MG. Hence, it is
necessary to optimize the controller of controllable sources
for optimal utilization of power and to maintain minimum
frequency/power demand deviations [7].
Aghamohammadi and Abdolahinia [10] introduced a
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method for determining the optimal size of a battery energy
storage system (BESS) for primary frequency control of an
MG.
Vachirasricirikul et al. [11] presented an electrolyzer system
to absorb the power fluctuations and enhance the frequency
control effect of a micro-turbine (MT) in the MG system.
They also [12] proposed a new robust proportion-integral-
derivative (PID) controller design of a heat pump (HP) and a
plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) for frequency control
in a smart MG system with a wind farm.
Nandar [13] proposed the design of a robust proportional-
integral (PI) controllable load to stabilize frequency fluctua-
tion in a remote MG power system. The suggested controller
is a conventional PI controller. A genetic algorithm (GA)
is employed to tune and optimize the proposed PI control
parameters.
Al-Saedi et al. [14] used particle swarm optimization (PSO)
for real-time self-tuning of power control parameters. Their
strategy is that when the MG is islanded or under load change
condition, the DG unit adopts the voltage/frequency (VF) con-
trol to regulate system voltage and frequency.
Recently, several combinations of control approaches have
been presented to improve the performance of fuzzy PI or PID
controllers. The procedure of adjusting PID coefficients might
be difficult, costly, and time consuming [15]. Khooban and
Niknam [15] achieved the optimal adjustment using a self-
adaptive modified bat algorithm (SAMBA). In comparison
with the original GA, the original bat algorithm (BA) takes less
time for each function evaluation as it does not utilize as many
operators as the original GA (such as crossover, mutation, and
selection operator) [16, 17].
In this article, the voltage level of the proposed MG is con-
sidered constant and equal to the rated value, and its variations
with the load are neglected. This approximation is thought to
be fair, as the voltage control loop has much smaller time con-
stants (approximately ten times as a rule of thumb) than those
involved in the frequency control loop. On the other hand, the
MG frequency varies according to the active power imbalance,
and the proposed control scheme has to restore it by controlling
the power from controllable sources in the MG system.
The power output of the controllable sources is controlled
and regulated based on the frequency and total power output
deviation of the MG. In steady state, the demand and supply
power will thus be matched again and a minimum frequency
deviation is maintained. This regulation will be non-linear due
to the generation rate constraint (GRC) associated with the
sources, which is taken into consideration herein. Addition-
ally, for proper load sharing among the controllable sources
a power-frequency (p-f ) droop(R) and frequency bias (B) for
the power generating sources were introduced [2, 7]. The con-
trollable source power output is controlled by designing PID
controllers using the basic firefly algorithm (FA). Also, the
FA is used for tuning R and B. The FA-PID control was de-
signed using various fitness functions, such as the integrated
absolute error (IAE), the integrated squared error (ISE), the
integrated time weighted absolute error (ITAE), and the new
weighted goal attainment method (WGAM). The results of the
designed PID controllers tuned by the FA using the WGAM
are compared with classical methods and bacterial foraging
optimization (BFO).
2. COMPLETE SYSTEM MODELING
The complete SIMULINK block diagram of the MG power
system using different modes of energy generation and stor-
age is illustrated in Figure 1 with its different components
described in Table 1. The models of various sources of the
proposed MG are discussed in the following sections. As men-
tioned in Section 1, the voltage level variation of the proposed
MG is negligible with load variation, and hence, the tie-line
impedance between various sources is neglected.
2.1. GRC
Many times the interconnected power systems do not include
the effect of constraints on the rate of change of power gen-
eration. The different power sources have different power
generation rates. Any power source when instructed to de-
crease/increase its power from a predetermined value needs to
follow a ramp rate [18]. The fact that the power output cannot
be changed from one value to another instantaneously must be
emphasized here. The ramp rate limit for power output change
 Abdel-hamed et al.: Optimized Control Scheme for Frequency/Power Regulation of Microgrid for Fault Tolerant Operation 1431

FIGURE 1. Complete SIMULINK block diagram of MG power system.

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Parameter Value Parameter Value 2.2. Frequency Bias (B)

H (sec) 5 Tb (sec) 0.1 In actual MG operation, multiple controllable sources are con-
Dv (p.u./Hz) 0.012 Tfc (sec) 4 nected to each other, allowing the interchange of power for
Tdg (sec) 2 Tae (sec) 0.2 various reasons. However, each is responsible to meet its na-
Tdt (20) 20 K 1 tive load with its own resources. For each source to meets its
GRCdg 10% GRCae 10% long-term dynamic load, supplemental control is applied to
GRCfc 10% GRCb 30%
the speed governors of most generators. The purpose of this
control is to attempt to match load and generation changes in
TABLE 1. MG parameters values of MG system the system. The supplemental control is known as automatic
generation control (AGC). This is used to maintain sched-
uled tie-line interchanges between sources, maintain sched-
is called the GRC and varies with the type of the power source uled system frequency error to zero, match generation to
[7, 18]. In an MG, different sources, such as a diesel engine load, and economically dispatch area generations to mini-
(DE), battery, aqua electrolyzer (AE), etc., need to have differ- mize operation costs [19]. To control and regulate the output
ent GRCs. The GRC is obtained as given in Figure 2. The GRC power of each controllable source, a proportional multiply-
is modified as shown in Figure 3, where the transfer function ing factor to the frequency deviation is used, called a fre-
of the diesel generator is described in Eq. (1), which is used quency bias (B) [7]. The more closely the B setting matches
with a unity feedback and checked for input and output signals the actual control frequency characteristic, the better AGC
and found to be both the same: will respond. Hence, the proper tuning of frequency bias
is important in AGC of an MG, which is addressed in this
K dt article.
G dt (s) = . (1)
Tdt (s) + 1

FIGURE 2. Basic diagram of GRC. FIGURE 3. Modified diagram of GRC.

 1432 Electric Power Components and Systems, Vol. 44 (2016), No. 13
FIGURE 4. p-f droop (R) C/Cs in generator.
2.3. p-f Droop (R) for Different Controllable Sources
in MG
In the considered case of the MG, there are sources, namely
the diesel generator and fuel cell (FC), with p-f droop (R).
The p-f droop characteristics are required in the system when
multiple power sources are connected in parallel, as in an MG
[20]. The controllable sources are responsible for maintaining
the frequency. Conventionally, it is implemented as in Figure 4.
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2.4. BESS
Energy storage systems (ESSs) are used to suppress the fluc-
tuations in power imbalances of the MG system within a very
short time to maintain MG stability. The BESS takes time to
charge energy to the battery cells; its time constant is limited to
several seconds [21]. A power electronic converter interfaces
the battery D -link with the MG. The BESS, including the bat-
tery, converter, and low-pass filter, is modeled in the following
transfer function, which can be expressed as a first-order lag
as
K BESS PBESS
G BESS (s) = = ,
TBESS .S + 1 f
where KBESS and TBESS represent the overall gain and overall
time constant of the BESS.
2.5. AE
The AE is a device used to produce hydrogen. The decompo-
sition of water into hydrogen and oxygen can be accomplished
by passing electric current between two electrodes separated
by aqueous electrolyte [21]. Part of the generated energy is
send to the AE to produce hydrogen for the FC [2, 20]. The
transfer function model of an AE is given by Eq. (3):
K AE
G AE (S) = , (3)
TAE S + 1
where KAE and TAE represent the gain and time constants of
the AE.
2.6. FC
FCs are very efficient and also have very low emission levels.
FC power generation systems provide a clean alternative to
conventional fossil fuel-based systems. It is an electrochemical
device that continuously converts the chemical energy of a fuel
and oxidant into electrical energy and heat while the fuel and
oxidant are supplied to the electrodes. FC generators are higher
order models with non-linearity. However, in low-frequency
domain analysis, it is represented by a first-order lag transfer
function model as in Eq. (4) [21]:
K FC
G FC (S) = , (4)
TFC S + 1
where KFC and TFC represent the gain and time constant of the
FC.
2.7. DE
A DE can follow the load demand by control of its governor
and speed droop. The governor regulates the fuel input to an
engine via a valve mechanism. The engine acts as a turbine and
drives the synchronous generator (SG). The governor of the
diesel generator and the turbine of the diesel generator can be
modeled with a first-order transfer function [22], as illustrated
in Eqs. (5) and (6), respectively:
K dg
G dgs (S) = , (5)
Tdg S + 1
K dt
G dgs (S) = , (6)
Tdt S + 1
where Kdg and Tdg represent the gain and time constants of the
governor of the diesel generator, and Kdt and Tdt represent the
gain and time constants of the turbine of the diesel generator.
Therefore, the overall transfer of a diesel generator will be
(2) given by Eq. (7):
K dg K dt
G dgt (S) = . . (7)
Tdg S + 1 Tdt S + 1
2.8. Wind Power Source
In case of a wind energy conversion system (WECS), im-
plementation of maximum power point tracking (MPPT) is
generally considered. As a result, the WECS loses its power
output controllability, so it cannot support frequency/power
regulation of the MG unless some modification is made into
its control loops. In this article, the WECS is treated as an
uncontrollable source, not participating in frequency/power
control [20].
2.9. Photovoltaic (PV) Source
Similar to the WECS, MPPT is also used in case of PV sys-
tems. As MPPT is also used in the case of a PV-based system,
there are no controls over the power output. Hence, in this
article, the PV system is treated as an uncontrollable source,
not participating in frequency/power control of the MG [20].
 Abdel-hamed et al.: Optimized Control Scheme for Frequency/Power Regulation of Microgrid for Fault Tolerant Operation 1433

2.10. Power Deviation and System Frequency Variation where r is the distance between any two fireflies in the search
Stable MG operation requires that the total power generation space, γ is the absorption coefficient to handle the brightness
must be effectively controlled and properly dispatched to meet reduction rate, and β o is the initial attractiveness at r = 0 (when
the total power demand of the connected loads. This power the fireflies are near each other).
control strategy is decided by the difference between power The distance r among firefly vectors i and j in the optimiza-
demand reference Ps∗ and total power generation PG as in Eq. tion search space at positions xi and xj , which is similar to
(8) [7, 18, 21]: the distance among the fireflies in the air, can be defined as a
Cartesian or Euclidean framework, as in Eq. (11):
Pe (s) = PS∗ − PG . (8)

The transfer function for system frequency variation  f to  d
   
per unit power deviation P is described as follows: ri j = x i − x j = 
  (xi,l − xi,l )2 , (11)
f K l=1
G sys (S) = = , (9)
Pe M.S + D
where K is the system frequency character constant, M = where xi,l is the lth component of the spatial coordinate, and xi
2H/fsys is the inertia constant of the MG, and D is the damping of the ith firefly is the dimension of the investigated optimiza-
constant of the MG. tion problem.
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3. FA 3.2. Movement of the Fireflies

The firefly with less brightness is attracted to the firefly with
The FA is inspired from the behavior of firefly insects in the
more brightness. The movement of the ith firefly (with less
summer of tropical areas. The FA is a meta-heuristic optimiza-
brightness) toward the jth firefly (with more brightness) is
tion algorithm first introduced at Cambridge University based
mathematically formulated as in Eq. (12):
on the following three ideas [23]: (1) all fireflies are supposed
to be unisex and will move toward more attractive and brighter  
1
fireflies regardless their sex; (2) the firefly with less brightness xi = xi + βo . exp(−γ .r ).(x j − xi ) + α. rand −
m
.
is attracted in the direction of the firefly with more brightness, 2
(12)
and it is the brightness of each firefly that determines its attrac-
The first segment of Eq. (12) is the current position of
tiveness (light intensity); and (3) in the case that no firefly with
the ith firefly, the second segment simulates the brightness of
more brightness is recognized, the firefly will move randomly
the jth firefly seen by the jth firefly, and the third segment
in the search space. It is worth noting that in optimization
allows the ith firefly to move randomly in the entire search
problems, the brightness of a firefly is determined by the fit-
space when no brighter firefly is visible around it. Coefficient
ness function value. The FA is a population-based optimization
α is a randomization parameter determined by the problem of
algorithm that has many similarities to other population-based
interest, while rand is a random number generator uniformly
algorithms, such as PSO and BFO. On the other hand, the exis-
distributed in the space [0, 1]. According to recent works, it is
tence of some characteristics, such as low dependability of the
shown that the optimal of the two variables β o and γ depends
algorithm on the adjusting parameters, the appropriate ability
on the characteristics of the investigated problem.
of local search, and the simplicity of both implementation and
idea, distinguish the FA from the rest. Moreover, the random
characteristics of the FA make it suitable for deep searching for
the global solution [24]. In the optimization algorithm, fireflies 4. CONTROL OBJECTIVES AND
use two main procedures: attractiveness and movement, which OPTIMIZATION-BASED TUNING OF THE PID
are described in what follows. CONTROLLER PARAMETERS
4.1. Objective Functions (F)
3.1. Attractiveness of Firefly
The objective function (F) to be minimized has been con-
In reality, as the distance between two fireflies (r) increases,
sidered as an integral performance index over the simulation
less light can be seen by the fireflies (less attractiveness). To
period (200 sec). Equations (13), (14), and (15) show the
simulate this firefly behavior, any monotonically decreasing
IAE, ISE, and ITAE fitness functions used in the optimiza-
function, as in Eq. (10), can be used:
tion [25], respectively. Equation (16) demonstrates a proposed
β(r ) = βo . exp(−γ .r m ) , m ≥ 1, (10) WGAM performance index to be minimized with optimization
 1434 Electric Power Components and Systems, Vol. 44 (2016), No. 13

N: number of fireflies 50
Ng : number of iterations (generations) 30
α: randomness 0.7
β o : initial attractiveness 0.3
γ : absorption coefficient 1

TABLE 2. FA parameters

techniques:
Tmax
IAE = | f |dt, (13)
o

Tmax
ISE = [ f ]2 dt, (14)
o

Tmax
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ITAE = t | f | dt, (15)

o
⎡T ⎤ ⎡T ⎤
max max
WGAM = c1 ⎣ [ f ]2 dt ⎦ + c2 ⎣ [PG − PL ]2 dt ⎦ ,
o o
(16)
where  f is the frequency deviation, PG – PL is the difference
between the generated and load power, and c1 and c2 are posi-
tive constants (weighting factor) with values chosen according
to prioritizing their importance between [0, 1] such that c1 +
c2 = 1; in this article, c1 = c2 = 0.5.

4.2. Implementation of FA-PID Controllers

In this section, PID controllers are designed using the FA
with various objective functions shown in Eqs. (13) to (16) to
improve the dynamics of an MG system. The block diagram
of an MG system using the FA-PID is shown in Figure 1.
According to the trials, the basic FA parameters used herein are
given in Table 2. The flowchart for the proposed optimization
problem using FA is shown in Figure 5.

4.3. Comparison with BFO
The FA-PID controllers are compared to the PID controllers
tuned by bacterial foraging (BF) as discussed in [26]. Accord-
ing to the trials, the basic BF parameters are given in Table 3.
The FA-PID controllers are also compared with a classical PID
controller.
5. SIMULATION RESULTS
The case study is a typical isolated MG consisting of different
types of power sources, such as wind, PV, DG, FCs, AEs, and
FIGURE 5. Flow of optimal allocation of DG using the FA.
storage devices (battery). The MATLAB/SIMULINK (The
MathWorks, Natick, Massachusetts, USA) diagram of the MG
is shown in Figure 1. The complete data can be found in Ta-
ble 1. The total number of parameters to be optimized by
classical, BF, and FA methods in the MG system are 15 (3 PID
controllers, i.e., a total of 9 gains, 3 frequency biases, and 3
p-f droops), as shown in Table 4. The analysis is carried out
by running the system for 200 sec. During this time, the sys-
tem was put under variation in load as well as power source.
 Abdel-hamed et al.: Optimized Control Scheme for Frequency/Power Regulation of Microgrid for Fault Tolerant Operation 1435

p: dimension of the search space 15 5.2. Frequency Deviation with PID Controllers Tuned
S: total number of bacteria 50 by FA and BFO
Nc : number of chemotactic steps (4:10) 5
The proposed FA-PID is implemented with different objective
Ns : swimming length (2:4) 4
Nre : number of reproduction steps (4:10) 4
functions. To emphasize the advantage of the proposed FA-PID
Ned : number of elimination–dispersal events (1:4) 2 method in terms of performance, the results have been com-
Ped : elimination–dispersal probability (0.25) 0.25 pared with the existing BF-PID approach in [26] for different
Sr : number of bacteria (splits) per generation 5 objectives. The efforts of the MG system shown in Figure 1
c(i): step size (≤0.1) 2e–5 with PID controllers tuned by the BFO and FA are shown in
Table 5. In addition, the time responses are shown in Figures 7
TABLE 3. BF parameters to 11.
It is obvious from Table 4 and Figures 7 and 8 that the effort
Conventional method of the FA-PID is better than BF-PID with respect to the value
of fitness function with different objectives. Figures 9 and 10
Parameters Diesel generator FC AE
illustrate that the frequency time response under the FA-PID
KP 0.5 0.9 0.9 controller is better than the BF-PID controller. It is also clear
KI 0.9 0.8 0.5 from Figure 11 that the response of frequency deviation is best
Kd 0.3 0.1 0.1
within the case of FA-PID with WGAM fitness function.
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R 0.1 0.3 0.5

B 0.4 0.3
TABLE 4. PID gains tuned manually
Before creating disturbance in all cases, a wind power supply
of approximately 0.3 p.u., a solar power supply of 0.3 p.u., and
a load demand of 0.6 p.u. are considered.
5.2. Frequency Deviation with PID Controllers Tuned
Manually
Figure 6 shows the frequency deviation (in Hz) of the MG sys-
tem under load change (increase 5% at time 10 sec and decrease
5% at time 100 sec) with the PID controller tuned manually
using trial-and-error method (classical PID controller). Table 4
shows the controller gains for the controllable sources. In this
case, the system presents a frequency oscillatory behavior.
0.2
5.3. Verification of the Proposed Control Scheme
Robustness for Fault-tolerant Operation
Case 1: Fault-tolerant Operation Against Parameters
Perturbation
Power system parameters are constantly changing, and this
may seriously degrade the system performance. One of the
main advantages of the intelligent control techniques is robust-
ness against environmental and dynamical faults or changes.
For showing the adaptive property of the FA-PID controller
with WGAM objective obtained in Eq. (16), the main system
parameters (D, H, Tdg , Tdt , TBESS , and TFC ) in the model shown
in Figure 1 are significantly changed according to Table 6. The
frequency deviation response f after applying these changes
to the MG system parameters and with load change (increase
15% at time 20 sec and decrease 5% at time 100 sec) under
the same controllers tuned by different techniques using the
WGAM objective are shown in Figures 12 and 13, respectively.
It can be seen from Figures 12 and 13 and Table 7 that con-
trollers tuned manually cannot handle the applied parameters
perturbation (given in Table 6). Also, the FA-PID controllers
are most robust, and calculated values for the performance
index in all test simulations are better when the FA-PID con-
trollers are used.

Case 2: Wind Power Disturbance and Keeping PV Power and

FIGURE 6. Frequency deviation (in Hz) using classical PID.
Load Demand Constant
In practical cases, this disturbance can occur due to in-
crease/decrease in wind velocity or outage of one unit of wind
turbine due to faults, as shown in Figure 14. The simulation re-
sults are shown in Figures 15 and 16. The same PID controllers
tuned by different techniques using the WGAM in Table 1 are
 1436 Electric Power Components and Systems, Vol. 44 (2016), No. 13

BFO FA

DEG FC AE DEG FC AE
IAE fitness function 0.4533 0.3826
KP 0.0841 0.7110 0.4399 0.1214 0.2032 0.9632
KI 0.0459 0.4293 0.0380 0.4703 0.5697 0.1101
Kd 0.5406 0.4013 0.1571 0.8538 0.6433 0.1002
R 0.2721 0.3293 0.4667 0.8963 0.4038 0.1497
B 0.4313 0.3759 0.2766 0.2852 0.2141 0.1684
Seeking time (sec) 789 439
ISE fitness function 0.0285 0.0058
KP 0.9150 0.2156 0.1761 0.5079 0.8298 0.0639
KI 0.2684 0.8590 0.0902 0.3881 0.6365 0.1405
Kd 0.5449 0.7985 0.1267 0.7722 0.2159 0.1717
R 0.3235 0.8055 0.5229 0.9938 0.1293 0.2370
B 0.8567 0.8053 0.8852 0.5537 0.4100 0.5479
Seeking time (sec) 712 437
ITAE fitness function 11.4498 10.8022
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KP 0.9347 0.9999 0.2751 0.8165 0.7387 0.3215

KI 0.7263 0.9482 0.2984 0.6102 0.8420 0.0006
Kd 0.2179 0.5090 0.0301 0.2120 0.1848 0.1136
R 0.6256 0.8316 0.1654 0.5688 0.4337 0.2614
B 0.7182 0.8464 0.4405 0.6352 0.5956 0.1601
Seeking time (sec) 715 459
WGAM (c1 = 0.5, c2 = 0.5) 0.5114 0.0656
KP 0.8818 0.1682 0.7736 0.9186 0.5427 0.1132
KI 0.1953 0.4193 0.1996 0.1192 0.7789 0.6763
Kd 0.9835 0.7292 0.0832 0.2895 0.3955 0.2028
R 0.9742 0.2644 0.5266 0.9021 0.1360 0.0113
B 0.7418 0.9550 0.4644 0.6074 0.5831 0.0476
Seeking time (sec) 706 455

TABLE 5. Optimized parameters of MG using BFO and FA with different fitness functions

FIGURE 8. Frequency deviation using FA-PID with different

FIGURE 7. Frequency deviation using BF-PID with different
objectives.
objectives.
 Abdel-hamed et al.: Optimized Control Scheme for Frequency/Power Regulation of Microgrid for Fault Tolerant Operation 1437

Parameter Variation range (%) Parameter Variation range (%)

H +54% (7.7) Tb −55% (0.045)
D −40% (0.0072) Tfc +50% (2)
Tdeg +50% (3) Tae +50% (0.3)
Tdt +50% (30)

TABLE 6. MG parameter variations

FIGURE 9. Frequency deviation using ITAE objective.

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FIGURE 12. Generated (PG ) and load demand (PL ) power.

FIGURE 10. Frequency deviation using WGAM objective.

used. The controllable DG, FC, AE, and battery power sources
vary to compensate the disturbance. The maximum frequency
deviation is between –0.04 and 0.01 Hz in case of FA-PID,
which is well within the tolerance limit.

FIGURE 13. Frequency deviation f (in Hz) with different

PID controller.

Case 3: Load Is Increased by 5% at Multiple Times by

Keeping PV Power and Wind Power Constant
The variation in load is met by all other MG sources, as il-
lustrated in Figure 17. Figure 18 shows a comparison of fre-
quency deviation f (in Hz) with the PID controller tuned

Controller Classical controller BF-PID FA-PID controller

Fitness function 15.1485 2.3177 0.3297

FIGURE 11. Frequency deviation using the WGAM under TABLE 7. Calculated values for the performance index with same
different controllers. controllers
 1438 Electric Power Components and Systems, Vol. 44 (2016), No. 13
FIGURE 14. Wind power disturbance.
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FIGURE 15. Generated and load demand powers.
FIGURE 16. Frequency deviation f (in Hz) with different
PID controllers.
by different methods. Frequency deviation is observed to be
between –0.028 and 0.001 Hz in transient and 0 in the steady-
state period in the case of FA-PID controllers, which are
within allowable limits. It is concluded from Figure 18 that
the proposed control scheme with FA-PID controllers is the
best.
FIGURE 17. Generated and load power.
FIGURE 18. Frequency deviation f (in Hz) with different
PID controllers.
6. CONCLUSION
This article proposes a robust control scheme with PID con-
trollers for suppressing the frequency oscillation in an MG to
make it fault tolerant. Parameters of the PID controllers are
tuned with FAs using various fitness functions and a novel
proposed WGAM. The FA-PID with a WGAM fitness func-
tion works better than the classical PID and BF-PID in terms
of the quality of the solution and seeking time. The FA-PID
controllers also show high robustness properties with respect
to parameter perturbations, load disturbances, renewable en-
ergy changes, and faults. This suggests that once the PID is
tuned for a certain case and implemented, it would not need
additional retuning, even in the perturbed cases. This increases
MG reliability and robustness and make the MG fault tolerant.
It is shown that the FA-PID controller scheme is able to handle
MG uncertainties in transient and steady states better than the
other two controller structures.
 Abdel-hamed et al.: Optimized Control Scheme for Frequency/Power Regulation of Microgrid for Fault Tolerant Operation 1439

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control from the Faculty of Engineering, Helwan University,
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Syst., Vol. 71, pp. 254–261, 2015. terests include applications of artificial intelligence and new
 1440 Electric Power Components and Systems, Vol. 44 (2016), No. 13
evolutionary and heuristic optimization techniques in electric
machines and renewable energy control.
Abou El-Eyoun K. M. Ellissy received his B.Sc., M.Sc. and
Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the Military Technical
College (MTC), Cairo, Egypt, in 1978, 1992, and 2000, re-
spectively. He was a post-doctoral research associate for 6
months on a full-time basis in University of Calgary, Canada,
between March and September 2005. He was dean of the Air
Defense Academy, Egypt, between 2005 and 2007 and is cur-
rently an assistant professor in High Institute of Engineering,
El Shorouk Academy, Cairo, Egypt. His current research in-
cludes power electronics, applications of wind turbines and
PV systems, and adjustable-speed drives.
Amged S. El-Wakeel received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in electri-
cal power engineering from the MTC, Cairo, Egypt, in 1992
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and 1998, respectively, and his Ph.D. in electrical engineering
from University of Manchester, Institute of Science and Tech-
nology (UMIST), UK, in 2003. He became an associate pro-
fessor in the Electrical Power Engineering Department, MTC,
in 2010. He is presently the head of Electrical Power and En-
ergy Department, MTC, Cairo, Egypt, and a board member
of the New & Renewable Energy Authority (NREA), Egypt,
since 2013. He was a visiting scholar in the Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Idaho University, USA,
between September 2013 and March 2014. His fields of in-
terest are electrical power distribution, renewable energy, and
electrical machine design optimization and control.
Almoataz Y. Abdelaziz received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in elec-
trical engineering from Ain Shams University, Egypt, in 1985
and 1990, respectively, and his Ph.D. in electrical engineering
according to the channel system between Ain Shams Univer-
sity, Egypt, and Brunel University, UK, in 1996. He is currently
a professor in the Department of Electrical Power Engineering
at Ain Shams University. He is chair of the IEEE Education
Society chapter in Egypt; senior editor of Ain Shams Engi-
neering Journal, editor of Electric Power Components and
Systems; as well as editorial board member, associate editor,
and editorial advisory board member of several international
journals and conferences. He is also a member of the IET and
the Egyptian Sub-Committees of IEC and CIGRE’. He has
been awarded many prizes for distinct research and interna-
tional publishing from Ain Shams University, Egypt. He has
authored or coauthored more than 260 refereed journal and
conference papers in his research areas, which include appli-
cations of artificial intelligence and evolutionary and heuristic
optimization techniques to power system operation, planning,
and control.