In order to satisfy the high accuracy and high security requirements of time synchronization in smart grid, this paper has conducted a research on high-precision time synchronization control algorithm based on IEEE 1588 protocol. A slave clock model is built considering both phase offset and frequency drift. A novel approach using proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller in cooperation with the wolf colony algorithm (WCA) is proposed to eliminate the offset of the slave clock with respect to the master clock. As a new swarm-intelligence algorithm, WCA is introduced for self-tuning the optimal parameters of the PID controller, which simulates the intelligent predatory behaviors and prey distribution rule of the wolf colony. The WCA-based PID control approach is compared with the method based on standard Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Back-Propagation (BP) neural network. The experimental results show that the proposed WCA-based PID control approach in time synchronization for smart grid has higher precision, can adaptively adjust compensation and keep the master-slave clock synchronization effectively. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.