PLC – HMI based Cascaded Fuzzy for Real Time Implementation of Hydroelectric Power Plant

An innovative design for controlling the process variable parameters such as flow and level control by implementing gate control of hydroelectric power plant using Progrmmable Logic Controller (PLC) – Human Machine Interface (HMI) based cascaded fuzzy controller scheme is proposed. The existing control schemes have difficulty to cope up with inherent time delay, nonlinearity due to uncertainty of the process and frequent load changes. An experimental setup is fabricated in the laboratory for flow and level control and simulation studies were carried out using PLC – HMI based cascaded fuzzy controller scheme. The Lab scale Experimental set up is provided with five levels in the upper tank and two levels in the lower tank and depending on the level sensor outputs the ladder logic is actuated. This work uses PLC of B&R Industrial Automation inbuilt with 22 digital inputs and provides 14 potential free outputs to control the miniaturized process depicted in the work. The performance of proposed scheme is evaluated by simulation and the results are compared with conventional controllers using real time data obtained from the hydroelectric power plant. The advantages of the proposed scheme over the existing controllers are highlighted.