This paper addresses a control strategy to design a PI- based load-frequency control (LFC) in face of communication delays. First the PI-based LFC design is transferred to a static output feedback (SOF) control design and then to obtain the optimal PI gains, a multi constraint minimization problem is solved using the H∞ control technique. A multi-area power system example is given to illustrate the proposed control methodology and the results are compared with the delay less system-based H∞ control design.