Fuzzy control of micro hydro power plants

The villages have hundred households who had to use costly diesel generator sets to get access to electricity. With setting up of micro hydro power plant, the villagers are able to not only save money but also generate employment opportunities. However, micro hydro generating units are usually isolated from the grid network and require control to maintain both the frequency of the voltage waveform and the scheduled power, for any working conditions, constant. The aim of the present work is to design a fuzzy controller that would manage almost the whole operation of the generating unit. The presented fuzzy controller has three main tasks. First, it regulates the frequency output of the plant in spite of changing user loads. Second, it limits the waste of the available water. Finally, it manages the electricity distribution by dividing the mini network on different departures connected by order of priority. Results obtained by simulation show the controller ability to control the system much better than some controllers proposed in the literature. It guarantees closed loop stability at all operating conditions. The used model for simulation was constructed based on the mathematical equations that summarize the behavior of the plant and was validated based on a micro-hydro power plant prototype.