A coordinated MIMO control design for a power plant using improved sliding mode controller

For the participation of the steam power plants in regulating the network frequency, boilers and turbines should be co-ordinately controlled in addition to the base load productions. Lack of coordinated control over boiler–turbine may lead to instability; oscillation in producing power and boiler parameters; reduction in the reliability of the unit; and inflicting thermodynamic tension on devices. This paper proposes a boiler–turbine coordinated multivariable control system based on improved sliding mode controller (ISMC). The system controls two main boiler–turbine parameters i.e., the turbine revolution and superheated steam pressure of the boiler output. For this purpose, a comprehensive model of the system including complete and exact description of the subsystems is extracted. The parameters of this model are determined according to our case study that is the 320MW unit of Islam-Abad power plant in Isfahan/Iran. The ISMC method is simulated on the power plant and its performance is compared with the related real PI (proportional-integral) controllers which have been used in this unit. The simulation results show the capability of the proposed controller system in controlling local network frequency and superheated steam pressure in the presence of load variations and disturbances of boiler. •A sliding mode based controller to control two main boiler–turbine parameters coordinately is presented.•A complete and exact model of the subsystems including turbo-generator, turbine and related control systems are derived.•The sliding mode based controller is carried out on the 320MW unit of Islam-Abad power plant in Isfahan/Iran.•The simulation results show the capability of the proposed controller system in power plants.