In this article, a control scheme based on chicken swarm optimizer (CSO) in cooperation with adaptive virtual-inertia control (AVIC) is investigated. The proposed control scheme aims at improving the frequency stability of an interconnected power system which is penetrated by renewable energy sources. The CSO is applied to produce the best values of the gains of the adapted standard proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controllers and required parameters of AVICs. Various scenarios are addressed in this study such as applications of sudden step load disturbances and severe variations in the inertia of the system. In addition, realistic conditions such as uncertainties of tidal power source and random load disturbances are demonstrated. Compulsory assessments with subsequent discussions to evaluate the results of the CSO are made. The proposed CSO–AVIC based control method is verified by comparisons with well-matured interesting algorithms such as differential evolution and particle swarm optimizers. Various quality specifications of the dynamic responses and the demonstrated results indicate clearly the viability of the proposed CSO–AVIC based on control scheme. It can be emphasized that the utilization of AVIC along with PID controllers are significantly improved the system dynamic performances and their dynamic response specifications meet the terms of standard acceptable criteria’s.