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Abstract The challenge of controlling frequency becomes greater as the complexity of a power network increases. The stability of a power system is highly dependent upon the robustness of the controller. This paper presents automatic generation control (AGC) of a four-area interconnected power system along with integrated renewable energy sources of PV and wind energy. The designed model is a challenge given the increased penetration levels of PV and wind along with a thermal-hydropower system. The addition of a hydropower system as a fourth type results in the pole of the open loop system of the hydropower system being located at the right half side of the s-plan. This demands a robust control. A novel MPC-(1 + PIDN) is designed for high-order interconnected areas (HOIA) to stabilize the frequency in a robust way. The salp swarm algorithm is adopted to optimize the parameters of the PIDN controller. The performance of the proposed controller under HOIA is tested in a unbalanced load environment with uncertainty in the power system. The proposed controller can effectively handle the frequency disruption by stabilizing it in $$0.86 s$$ 0.86 s for Area-1, $$1.08 s$$ 1.08 s for Area-2, $$0.81 s$$ 0.81 s for Area-3, and $$0.84 s$$ 0.84 s for Area-4 with an average time of $$0.89 s$$ 0.89 s for all the areas, whereas the average time for GWO: PI-PD, MPC/PI and GA-PI is $$3.48 s$$ 3.48 s , $$10.36 s$$ 10.36 s and $$18.47 s$$ 18.47 s , respectively. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the controller when compared to other controllers.