Multi-Population African Vultures Optimized Fractional Derivative Virtual Inertia and Damping Control for Frequency Stabilization in Islanded Microgrid Network

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research paper

Authors

Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, National Institute of Technology Puducherry, Karaikal, India.

Abstract

The growing integration of renewable energy sources (RESs) has reduced the rotational inertia of power grids, traditionally supplied by large rotating generators. This reduction makes grids more vulnerable to frequency variations. To address this challenge, this paper introduces a new fractional derivative virtual inertia and damping control (FDVIDC) strategy for enhancing frequency stability in an islanded microgrid (IMG) network. A fractional-order proportional integral derivative (FOPID) controller is employed to regulate the active power output in a biopower-dominated microgrid system. The parameters of both the FDVIDC and FOPID controllers are optimized using a new meta-heuristic algorithm called the Multi-population African Vultures Optimization (MAVO), with the integral time absolute error (ITAE) criterion as the performance index. The effectiveness of the proposed MAVO algorithm is demonstrated using standard benchmark test functions and is compared with the original African Vultures Optimization (AVO), Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA), and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). Simulation results confirm that MAVO achieves a 90.74% reduction in ITAE, with a settling time of 9.573 seconds and a steady-state error of 2.809, indicating its superior convergence and control accuracy over PSO as the baseline. Time-domain analysis further confirms that the FOPID controller outperforms conventional PI and PID controllers. The robustness of the proposed control strategy is assessed under various operating scenarios. Finally, the proposed technique is validated through the OPAL-RT platform.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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Journal of Operation and Automation in Power Engineering

Articles in Press, Corrected Proof
Available Online from 08 December 2025

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History

  • Receive Date: 29 April 2025
  • Revise Date: 28 June 2025
  • Accept Date: 09 July 2025
  • First Publish Date: 08 December 2025

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