This paper proposes a new adaptive underfrequency load shedding scheme (UFLS) to avoid frequency instability in electrical power system during abnormal wide area disturbances. The developed scheme is based on online monitoring of the distance relay zone 3 decisions of some tie lines using (WAMS) and SCADA/EMS systems, to check rapidly and reliably the uncontrolled islanding conditions and, permit an automatic load shedding action to maintain frequency stability of power system. Simulation results on 400 kV Turkish transmission systems demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed scheme compared to current frequency load shedding schemes which they cannot consider all possible circumstances because of their limited access to the power network data. Simulation results clearly indicate that large disturbances in power systems can be avoided and their propagation can also be stopped using the proposed scheme.