Model-Based Power Plant Master Control

In this paper a coordinated master control for a solid fuel power plant has been developed and the performance evaluated in terms of tracking capability, stability and robustness. The control strategy has been model-based predictive control (MPC) and it was evaluated on a nonlinear process model of the Vattenfall power plant Idbäcken in Nyköping, Sweden. The developed master MPC with gain scheduling has better performance compared to the existing PID controller which has been thoroughly studied and tuned in a previous project. The robustness of the proposed master MPC controller against common disturbances and parameter variation has been investigated and it shows that the proposed controller is more robust than the existing PID controller.