This article revisits the study of load frequency control (LFC) problem in an interconnected nonlinear power network under mismatched disturbance. Unlike previous works, a more realistic interconnected power network with nonlinear coupling between control areas and also including nonlinearities like generation rate constraint (GRC) and governor dead band (GDB) is under study. An adaptive super twisting sliding mode controller (ST‐SMC) is designed based on system states and estimated disturbance. The nonlinear disturbance observer (NDO) estimates the mismatch between the electrical and mechanical power and then the estimated value is employed in the controller design to compensate the disturbance. The proposed control scheme ensures faster frequency and tie‐line power stabilization compared with techniques existing in the literature. The robustness of the proposed design is validated under random varying step load disturbance and with two area four machine Kundur's test system. The closed loop system stability is theoretically proved using the Lyapunov function. Simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed design in a two‐area interconnected power network.