Controlling an automatic voltage regulator using a novel Harris hawks and simulated annealing optimization technique

Maintaining the terminal voltage of a power system is a crucial process and this can be achieved via a system named automatic voltage regulator (AVR). However, an AVR needs an appropriate control method. In this context, this article proposes a novel Harris hawks optimization (HHO) and simulated annealing (SA) technique which can be used for AVR. The proposed optimization technique (HHO-SA) combines the good exploration feature of HHO with the exceptional local search feature of SA. The HHO-SA algorithm is introduced as a novel design method to obtain the optimum parameters for proportional + integral + derivative plus second order derivative (PID + DD) controller adopted in the AVR. Time domain objective function of the system is effectively minimized and the best PID + DD parameters are obtained. The analysis of statistical tests, convergence, transient and frequency responses, root locus, and disturbance rejection along with robustness are conducted for verifying the efficiency of the HHO-SA algorithm. Also, the performance of the HHO-SA tuned PID + DD controller on AVR is compared with the original HHO tuned PID + DD along with PID, FOPID, and PID + DD controllers that are adjusted by state-of-the-art metaheuristic methods. The practical implementation of the proposed controller is also demonstrated in this work. The extensive simulation results and comparisons with the existing controllers adopting the same set of data demonstrate the superior control performance and good robustness of the HHO-SA tuned PID + DD controller.