The load-frequency control (LFC) problem has been one of the major subjects in electric power system design/operation and is becoming much more significant today in accordance with increasing size, changing structure and complexity of interconnected power systems. In practice LFC systems use simple proportional-integral (PI) controllers. However, since the PI controller parameters are usually tuned based on classical or trial-and-error approaches, they are incapable of obtaining good dynamical performance for a wide range of operating conditions and various load changes scenarios in a multi-area power system. For this problem, the decentralised LFC synthesis is formulated as an HN-control problem and is solved using an iterative linear matrix inequalities algorithm to design of robust PI controllers in the multi-area power systems. A three-area power system example with a wide range of load changes is given to illustrate the proposed approach. The resulting controllers are shown to minimise the effect of disturbances and maintain the robust performance.
