Validation of hydroelectric power plant model for speed governor development studies

This paper describes derivation and validation of the model of a hydroelectric power plant (HEPP) with a long penstock, an upstream surge tank and a vertical Francis turbine. Being implemented in Matlab/Simulink environment, the model considers nonlinearities in turbine characteristics, elastic penstock and propagation wave effect. Under the scope of a refurbishment project including renewal of a hydro-mechanical speed governor with a new digital one, simulation studies are to be performed during detailed design phase based on the validated model for designing various control actions against different scenarios and determination of new controller parameters in order to improve existing performance. The controller parameters that will be determined through validated model will be implemented in the digital type speed governor for a 56 MW Francis turbine-single unit, 40 year-old HEPP.