Load Frequency Control of Interconnected Multi-Area Power Systems: A Single-Phase Second-Order Observer Sliding Mode Control Design

The increasing integration of renewable energy sources into interconnected multi-area power systems (IMAPSs) has led to a significant reduction in synchronous inertia, making frequency regulation considerably more challenging. While existing studies have explored the use of integral sliding mode load frequency control (ISMLFC) schemes to stabilize area frequency and tie-line power flows in IMAPSs, these approaches predominantly rely on conventional two-phase sliding mode control. Such methods, however, have demonstrated notable limitations in maintaining the stability of IMAPSs under increasingly complex operating conditions. In addition, all the IMAPS state variables must be measured, which can cause difficulty in real IMAPS applications. Therefore, this study proposes a novel load frequency control (LFC) strategy that coordinates the single-phase sliding mode control and state observer methods to solve these above limitations. First, a dynamic IMAPS model with single phase sliding mode control based on state observer scheme is established under renewable resource uncertainties and load disturbances. Then, a novel linear matrix inequality (LMI) based on Lyapunov functional is constructed to analyze the stability of the IMAPS. Furthermore, the decentralized single-phase sliding mode load frequency control (DSPSMLFC) method is developed for the LFC of the ISMLFC. Finally, three testing scenarios are employed to verify the efficiency and advantage of the proposed DSPSMLFC approach in MATLAB/Simulink R2023a. The simulation results confirm that the proposed DSPSMLFC scheme can improve the LFC of the IMAPS under renewable resource uncertainties and load disturbances.