Abstract
This paper introduces Harris hawks optimization (HHO) algorithm in order to determine the gains of the proportional integral derivative (PID) controllers used in the load frequency control of power systems. The automatic generation control (AGC) problem is formulated as an objective function using the integral square of errors (ISE) criterion. In this paper, the HHO algorithm is used to determine the gains of the PID controller in a power system constructed of two areas. The system under study is simulated under different loading conditions in both areas. The results obtained by the HHO algorithm are compared with that obtained by some other algorithms such as symbiotic organisms search (SOS) algorithm and artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm. Then the proposed algorithm is used to deal with a two area power system that consists of non reheat thermal generating units considering the generation rate constraints (GRC). The results considering the generation rate constraints are compared with some other algorithms such as the bacterial foraging algorithm (BFOA) and the genetic algorithm (GA). The results have shown the effectiveness and superiority of the HHO algorithm. The system model is constructed using MATLAB /SIMULINK environment.