Owing to random load changes and transmission time delays in interconnected power systems with renewable energy, the load frequency control scheme has become one of the main methods to keep stability and security of power systems. To relieve communication burden and increase network utilisation, an adaptive event-triggered scheme is explored. Then, a new fractional-order global sliding mode control scheme comprising the fractional-order term in the sliding surface is adopted to improve robustness of load frequency control. The fractional-order term generates a new degree of freedom and more adjustable parameters to improve control performance. Furthermore, the Markov theory is applied in the modelling process to better describe the uncertainty of parameters and external disturbances. The stability and stabilisation criteria for multi-area power systems load frequency control are put forward by employing the improved Lyapunov function and integral inequalities with auxiliary functions. Finally, two simulation examples containing a two-area power system and modified IEEE 39-bus New England test power system with three wind farms are presented to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed method. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.