Implementation of a digital AVR for small alternators

Abstract

Deregulation of the electric utilities has created unprecedented opportunities for growth in the market for diesel generator sets (of sizes up to 5 MVA). Until recently such plants were used, almost exclusively, for emergency stand-by purposes; but this is no longer the case. In order to extract the maximum benefit from this situation improvements must be made in the control and protection features incorporated in these gensets. TheAutomatic Voltage Regulator (AVR) has a key role in these hture developments. This paper describes the development of a digital AVR which can replace the existing analogue AVRs traditionally used. Further, it describes the application of a fuzzy tuning scheme as an approach to resolving conflicting control requirements.Results of step demand; load acceptance and rejection tests are provided for the comparison of the performance of the digital AVR with that of the traditional analogue devices.

A digital PID speed controller for a diesel generating set

“…The technique, which will be eventually implemented, will be a fuzzy logic based control algorithm. Fuzzy logic has been chosen due to its ease of implementation, because of its linguistic nature, the way in which it can be liked to a traditional PID type system and the flexibility of function [3,4].…”