Semi-physical piecewise affine representation for governors in hydropower system generation

This paper presents a nonlinear model for a hydraulic amplifier, a component of the governor in the speed control loop of hydroelectric power plants. The amplifier transforms the electrical signal of the controller into mechanical movement of the turbine components, including the switching characteristics. This model is used to propose, on the one hand, a Piecewise Affine (PWA) representation for the hydraulic amplifier, and, on the other hand, a methodology for estimating the model parameters using field measurements, which facilitates its practical implementation. This representation is referred to as semi-physical because the model parameters are closely related with the physical construction of the hydraulic amplifier components. Among the advantages of this PWA representation are the appropriate structuring for use in system identification methods, for estimating its parameters, and the existence of advanced control techniques that use this structure in controller design, thereby improving the load-frequency control performance. The paper concludes with a description of the results, including the parameters that were estimated by using the hydraulic amplifier model with PWA structure.