Fractional-order PID Load Frequency Control for Power Systems Incorporating Thermostatically Controlled Loads

The intermittent characteristic of power loads threatens the frequency stability of power systems. In order to ensure the reliability of the user-side power supply, proper load frequency control (LFC) methods are often applied to eliminate frequency deviation. In this paper, the scheduling strategy for the thermostatically controlled loads (TCL) aggregator is proposed, and the demand-side response technology is adopted for the frequency regulation of multi-area interconnected power systems. The optimal fractional-order PID (FOPID) controller based on the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is proposed and applied to the regional frequency deviation suppression. Moreover, the simulation experiments are carried out in two-area interconnected power systems to verify the control effect of the FOPID and the TCL aggregator scheduling strategy.