MODELLING AND SIMULATION OF HYDROPOWER PLANT USING PSO-TUNED CONTROLLER

As the world turns towards cleaner sources of energy, the hydraulic power plants are being set-up to minimize the dependence on fossil fuel. This paper presents a dynamic model of a small hydropower plant. The proposed system senses the requirement of electrical power at the load end and generates the required mechanical power to meet out the said demand. The mechanical power output of the turbine is controlled by changing the gate position. It limits the amount of water turning the turbine, which, in turn, is controlled through a servomotor mechanism consisting of a proportional integral derivative (PID) controller. The PID controller is tuned using classical techniques and particle swarm optimization technique. The performance of the controller is found to be much better and stable in the latter case. The frequency deviation of the power supplied is also controlled and presented here for various load swings.