Design of gorilla troops optimizer‐tuned 2DOF‐PID controller to improve the frequency response of centralized‐control technical virtual power plant

Abstract This work presents an enhanced frequency control model of a centralized‐control technical virtual power plant (TVPP) with distributed energy resources (DERs). To provide frequency control support, a centralized TVPP is exposed to communication delays because of the numerous message exchanges between the grid operator, the VPP operator, and the DERs. The VPP operator also imposes dead band restrictions on the droop control signal to avoid frequent activation of sensitive DERs. The literature lacks the frequency control models of VPP that can handle these delay and dead‐band issues. This work attempts to incorporate frequency dead‐band and communication delays in the primary (droop control) and secondary control (ACE control) loop for the DERs in the VPP. In addition, a control approach based on 2DOF‐PID controllers tuned by a recently developed artificial gorilla troops optimizer (GTO) is employed to control the frequency of the VPP model. The GTO algorithm performs better on comparative assessment than the other classical optimization algorithms. Under dynamic performance evaluation, the 2DOF‐PID controller outperforms the GTO‐optimized PID and PI controllers. Finally, the sensitivity analysis results show that the proposed GTO‐optimized 2DOF‐PID controller for the VPP model is robust against uncertainties in the system.