Sunflower optimization based fractional order fuzzy PID controller for frequency regulation of solar-wind integrated power system with hydrogen aqua equalizer-fuel cell unit

The rapid advancement of electric consumer demand enforces challenging situations to manage high penetration of Solar PV and Wind Power into the hydrothermal system resulting in load frequency control (LFC) problem. This article introduces an advanced strategy to manage the LFC issue in an integrated power system (PS) with the impact of hydrogen aqua equalizer (HAE)-based Fuel cells (FC). A transformative fractional-order fuzzy-based PID (FOFPID) controller regulated by the Sunflower optimizing (SFO) technique has been proposed for frequency regulation of the proposed integrated PS. The preeminence of the FOFPID controller has been validated over PID, Fuzzy-PID (FPID), and fractional order PID (FOPID) controller. The effectiveness of the SFO technique has been established over teaching learning-based optimization (TLBO) and Genetic Algorithm (GA). The supremacy of the SFO approach authenticated by some recent frequency regulation research outcomes. The influence of HAE-FC for frequency regulation in an integrated PS has been studied with the proposed SFO-tuned FOFPID controller. From the observation, it is perceived that the values of reduction in ITAE with suggested SFO-tuned FOFPID controller as compared to GA & TLBO are 84.61% & 56.04% and further 35.16% is reduced with the occurrence of HAE-FC element. It is also perceived that the improvement in settling time for increment f(1), increment f(2), increment Ptie(12) with SFO approach related to GA are 78.07%, 76%, and 83.87% and compared to TLBO are 9.97%, 38.25%, and 68.23%. Furthermore, 26.45%, 18.64%, and 31.21% are reduced with the presence of HAE-FC unit. Lastly, the sturdiness of the anticipated strategy was authenticated by a sensitivity test and a real-time validation test using OPAL-RT.