Fuzzy Gain-Scheduling PID+Decoupling Control for Power Plant Wide-Range Operation

Mostly during wide-range operation, load-following capability and efficacy for frequency regulation of fossil-fuel power plants may be affected by interaction among the control loops, caused by the non-linear coupled plant dynamics. This paper introduces a fuzzy gain-scheduling decoupling control scheme to improve plant response under large power excursions throughout the power plant operating space. The control scheme consists of single-loop PID controllers in series with an inverse interaction compensator. Both, the controllers and compensator are gain-scheduled with fuzzy systems to embrace the entire operating space. The proposed control scheme is evaluated through simulation experiments. Results show improved wide-range operation.