Maximum power point tracking for micro hydro power plants using extremum seeking control

In this work, we propose using extremum seeking control (ESC) as a tool for maximum power point tracking in micro hydro power plants. The phasor ESC, which is based on estimating the phasor of the plant output at the perturbation frequency, was modified by estimating the phasors of multiple harmonics of this frequency. This modification will improve the performance of ESC by reducing the fluctuations in control variables that may appear in noisy environments as a result of high-amplitude perturbation signals. A test rig was used to experimentally verify the proposed approach and to demonstrate the usability of ESC in hydro power plants.