A SELF-TUNING AUTOMATIC VOLTAGE REGULATOR DESIGNED FOR AN INDUSTRIAL-ENVIRONMENT

Examination of the performance of fixed parameter controllers has resu lted in the development of self-tuning strategies for excitation contr ol of turbogenerator systems. In conjunction with the advanced control algorithms, sophisticated measurement techniques have previously been adopted on micromachine systems to provide generator terminal quantit ies. In power stations, however, a minimalist hardware arrangement wou ld be selected leading to relatively simple measurement techniques. Th e performance of a range of self-tuning schemes is investigated on an industrial test-bed, employing a typical industrial hardware measureme nt system. Individual controllers are implemented on a standard digita l automatic voltage regulator, as installed in power stations. This em ploys a VME platform, and the self-tuning algorithms are introduced by linking to a transputer network The AVR includes all normal features, such as field forcing, VAr limiting and overflux protection. Self-tun ing controller performance is compared with that of a fixed gain digit al AVR.