Practical Fuzzy-PID Governor For Hydro-Turbine Speed Control

Hydro-turbine governing systems face significant challenges in maintaining precise speed regulation. Conventional PID governors, while widely used, often exhibit limited robustness and slow adaptation to rapid changes in operating conditions. This paper proposes a practical hybrid Fuzzy-PID governor that integrates the self-tuning capability of fuzzy logic with the proven effectiveness of PID control to enhance the speed regulation performance of hydro-turbine units. The fuzzy controller dynamically adjusts the proportional, integral, and derivative gains in real time based on speed error and its rate of change, thereby improving transient response, reducing overshoot, and ensuring robust stability across a wide range of disturbances. The proposed controller is designed with a simple rule base and minimal computational requirement, making it suitable for practical implementation on existing digital governors. Simulation studies conducted on a nonlinear hydro-turbine model with governor and penstock dynamics demonstrate superior performance of the Fuzzy-PID governor compared to classical PID and gain-scheduled PID controllers in terms of settling time, overshoot, and disturbance rejection. Experimental validation on a laboratory-scale hydro-turbine test rig further confirms the practical effectiveness and ease of tuning of the proposed approach.

Keywords:

Fuzzy , PID , Control , Governor , Hydro-Turbine Speed Control