Optimal Load Frequency Control of a Hybrid Electric Shipboard Microgrid Using Jellyfish Search Optimization Algorithm

This paper examines the critical topic of load frequency control (LFC) in shipboard microgrids (SMGs), which face challenges due to low system inertia and the intermittent power injection of renewable energy sources. To maintain a constant frequency (even under system uncertainties), a robust and well-tuned controller is required. In this paper, a study was conducted first by examining the performance of three different controller architectures, in order to determine which is the most-appropriate for the multi-energy SMG system. The time delays that occur due to communication links between the sensors and the controller were also considered in the analysis. The controllers were tuned using a very recent bio-inspired optimization algorithm called the jellyfish search optimizer (JSO), which has not been used until recently in LFC problems. To assess the tuning efficiency of the proposed optimization algorithm, the SMG’s frequency response results were comprehensively compared to the results obtained with other bio-inspired optimization algorithms. The results showed that the controllers with gains provided by the JSO outperformed those tuned with other bio-inspired optimization counterparts, with improvements in performance ranging from 19.13% to 93.49%. Furthermore, the robustness of the selected controller was evaluated under various SMG operational scenarios. The obtained results clearly demonstrated that the controller’s gains established in normal conditions do not require retuning when critical system parameters undergo a significant variation.