Effect of PI-TI-Based Virtual Inertia Controller with Virtual Damping on a Renewable Energy-Based Multi-area Power System Under Deregulation

Modern power systems include a large amount of renewable energy generation and power converter components, which in turn have an effect on the system's inertia. It becomes a major challenge in load frequency control (LFC) of an interconnected system. As a means of overcoming the challenges associated with LFC, this article analyzed the effects of virtual inertia control (VIC) on a three-area interconnected system that incorporates renewable power generators within the deregulated market. Virtual damping and a cascade controller combination of the proportional-integral and tilted-integral controller (PI-TI) have been proposed in the VIC technique to lessen the inertia problem associated with the power system. The controller gains are optimized using a novel algorithm named the mine blast algorithm. In addition to evaluating the effectiveness of the proposed VIC method, it is also studied using AC/DC tie line interconnected systems, and phase locked loops. Under all aspects, the obtained results demonstrate that the proposed VIC technique leads to increase system dynamic performances in different deregulated environments by reducing oscillations and deviations in frequency, tie power, and settling time. The reliability of the proposed control method is also verified by performing stability and robustness analyses. The considered power system was simulated using the OPAL-RT digital simulator under various scenarios.