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RENOVATION OF TURBINE CONTROL SYSTEM USING PLC-BASED FOR SMALL

HYDROELECTRIC POWER GENERATION

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 RENOVATION OF TURBINE CONTROL SYSTEM
USING PLC-BASED FOR SMALL
HYDROELECTRIC POWER GENERATION
Tanabodee Duangsoithong* and Chanapan Kongnam
Abstract--This paper presents the development
of PLC-based turbine control system for small
hydroelectric power generation with Kaplan
turbine type. The proposed system is a pilot
project of modernization of power plant control
system prepared for supplantation of worn
electronic equipment or analog technology.
The proposed system is implemented for Mae-
Ngat hydro-power plant, under responsibility of
Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, as
a test system. The mentioned system consists of
two main parts; governor control and operation
control. The governor control part composing of
speed, power and position control mode
actuating to guide vane are designed and
implemented. In addition to guide vane control
function, the runner blade control function is
completely fulfilled. In the operation control
part, all control sequence with Human Machine
Interface (HMI) for configuration modification,
parameters setting, and indications are
developed.
The operation of the PLC-based turbine
control system is verified and confirmed by
simulation and severe tests, respectively. The
results of test indicated that the proposed
turbine control system can work properly.
Index Terms--Hydroelectric power generation,
governor control, Kaplan turbine, PLC.
T. Duangsoithong and C. Kongnam are with the Electrical
Maintenance Department, Electricity Generating Authority of
Thailand, Nonthaburi, Thailand.
e-mail: tanabodee.d@egat.co.th, chanapan.k@egat.co.th.
* Corresponding author
I. INTRODUCTION
T he electronic equipment installed at the various
number of small and medium hydroelectric
power generation under responsibility of Electricity
Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) are
almost lifetime use, they have accordingly effect to
reliability of electricity generation on those power
plant. Consequently, the electrical maintenance
division has necessarily to establish a pilot project
for modernization of those power plant control
system. With a several advantages for instance
compact size, comfortable modification and various
supporting accessories of the Programmable Logic
Controller (PLC) technology, it is considered for
implementation of a new turbine control system as
the pilot project. The new system shall be stability
operation, less maintenance, and low equipment
cost. Moreover, all complete functions must be
fulfilled and it can work properly as the existing
system.
A. Description of the Existing System
The pilot project development is performed at
unit No. 1 of Mae-Ngat hydro power plant. The unit
generation capacity is 5 MVA with voltage level 22
kV. Regarding to the original turbine control
system, it was simultaneously installed since early
1985s with the power plant. The turbine control is
performed by an analog electronic governor while
the operation control is done by operator through
sequential relay circuit.
B. Design of New System
The main objective of the new turbine control
system is designed to completely fulfill the existing
system. All control functions composing of turbine
control, generator control, load control and unit
startup/shutdown sequence are implemented on
PLC. The new system is designed to incorporate
with the original electronic governor system and
operation control system with sequential relay
circuit. In order to maintain the operation of
existing control system as backup system, the
designed control system can therefore be switched
between conventional system and PLC system. The
implemented system structure is simply indicated
as in Fig. 1. The Human Machine Interface (HMI)
is used for machine parameters and status
monitoring in addition controllability of turbine
operation. The engineering unit is utilized for edit
of HMI configuration.
Fig. 1. New system structure [1].
Furthermore from designed concept, the PLC-
based turbine control system is implemented with
Siemens’s PLC, S7-400 (single CPU). The PLC-
based control system overview is shown as in Fig.
2.
Fig. 2. PLC-based control system configuration [2].
In section II, the system development and
configuration of governor and operation control are
described. In section III, field test and results are
provided. The project development cost is then
given in Section IV. Finally, conclusion of the work
is provided in section VI.
II. SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT AND CONFIGURATION
Owing to the developed control system has two
parts as governor and operation control, this section
is therefore described in separated detailed.
A. Software Development
The software development is separated into two
parts; governor control and operation control. The
governor control function is implemented on PLC
standard language, IEC61131-5. The operation
control (HMI) is developed on a personal computer
with Microsoft® Window® operating system and the
ProficyTM HMI/SCADA – iFIX (Unlimited Tag
with OPC Client/Server) software.
1) Governor Control
Regarding to the governor control function, it is
generally composed of turbine speed, power and
position control mode that actuating to guide vane
or wicket gate of turbine. As aforementioned,
turbine installed at Mae-Ngat hydro power plant is
Kaplan type, the runner blade control function is
therefore necessarily implemented. The structure of
governor control function is indicated as flow chart
in Fig. 3.
Fig. 3. Flow chart of governor control program [2].
Each implemented functions of the governor
control part can be described as in the following
details below.
a) Speed Control Function
The speed control function is shown as a diagram
in Fig. 4. The speed control function composes of
implemented main sub-function blocks for instance
Set Point, Ramp Rate, Dead Band, PID, and
Limiter. The maximum limit of speed set point is
100% while minimum limit depending on the field
circuit breaker (41) status. The set point can be
Fig. 5. Function block diagram of guide vane position control
obtained by SCADA with enable signal pulse. The
for the turbine [2].
demand signal from SCADA is then passed the
ramp rate that assigning the rising or decreasing c) Runner Vane Control Function
rate of signal. The guide vane position demand or In this function, the desired position of runner
speed control signal is then result of difference blade is obtained by the computation of relationship
value (error) from the speed set point and speed between the guide vane position and head water
feedback that passing PID function block. level in reservoir. The runner vane control function
is shown as a diagram in Fig. 6. The function is
consisted of Relation, Limiter, Set Point, Selector,
Summing, Dead Band and Gain Valve. The runner
vane control has three mode; auto, manual, and
runner stop.

Relation Limiter Manual

GV POS 100.0
RUN SP Runner Stop
Auto
0.0 0.00%
Head Water
A B C +
Selector ε
_
A Dead Band RUN Output
Set point
RUN Raise Raise HL
B
RUN Position x
100.0 C
RUN Lower Lower LL Feedback
Fig. 4. Function block diagram of turbine speed control for 100.0 HV
0.0 LV Runner SP Gain Valve
the turbine [2].
b) Position Control Function Fig. 6. Function block diagram of runner vane control for the
The guide vane position control function is turbine [2].
shown as a diagram in Fig. 5. The position of guide
d) Power Control Function
vane can directly be controlled by Raise and Lower The power control function is composed of Set
command while limiter is between 0% and 100%. Point, Ramp Rate, Selector, Droop, Summing, Dead
In this mode, the set point signal of gate position Band, PID and Limiter. The function is then shown
demand in each control mode is managed by the as a diagram in Fig. 7. The output of this function is
selector function. The delivered gate control signal a demand signal that delivered to an input of guide
or governor output from PLC, before governor vane position control function block. The power set
servo card, is provided by the summing value of point can be set when the load set signal is equal to
gate control feedback and selector which the 1. Furthermore, the active power of the turbine can
summing result is multiplied by gain value. directly be increased or decreased and by command
from SCADA.

Fig. 7. Function block diagram of power control for the
turbine [2].
Regarding to the designed governor control
function, it is created by a several number of sub-
function blocks on PLC. In order to having the
fully effective operation of PLC system, the
executed functions in the program are classified
into three tasks with different execution time. The
governor control program on execution time point
of view is therefore simply indicated as in Fig. 8.
Fig. 8. Governor control program on PLC system.
2) Operation Control (HMI)
As mention before, the turbine control sequence
or operation control is implemented with ProficyTM
HMI/SCADA – iFIX software. With the usefulness
of HMI, the operator can comfortably control the
operation of machine. The page of turbine
start/stop sequence including step of operation is
indicated as showing in Fig. 9.
Fig. 9. The page of turbine control sequence on HMI.
Figure 10 shown the governor control page
including guide vane position control, speed control
before synchronization and power control on HMI.
Besides, in this operation page, some important
analog signals for example generator voltage,
generator current, excitation voltage and current,
active power, turbine speed, etc can be indicated
and recorded as intending. These recorded signals
can be recalled.
Fig. 10. The page of governor control on HMI.
Besides machine control page on HMI as shown in
Fig. 9 and Fig. 10, the transmission system control
of Mae-Ngat hydro power plant is additional
implemented. The HMI page of the transmission
system control is then indicated as in Fig. 11.
Fig. 11. The page of transmission system of Mae-Ngat
Hydro power plant on HMI.
B. Installation
The new turbine control system is placed on
control room, generator floor, and turbine floor due
to field equipments location and effectiveness of
signal communication. The PROFIBUS is applied
Fig. 13. Remote I/O located at turbine floor [1].
for signal communication between PLC’s CPU at
control room and remote I/O at turbine and
generator floor. While the communication between
HMI and PLC system is performed by Industrial
Ethernet (OPC SERVER).
The installed remote I/O at generator floor is
shown as in Fig. 12 while another remote I/O
locating at generator floor is indicated as in Fig. 13.
The PLC system’s CPU locating at control room is
shown as in Fig. 14.

Fig. 14. PLC system cubicle located at control room [1].

III. SYSTEM TEST AND RESULTS

Fig. 12. Remote I/O located at generator floor [1].
The operation of the PLC-based turbine control
system is verified and confirmed by simulation and
severe tests, respectively. The simulation test is
performed by developed turbine simulator in
laboratory. The result of simulation test is indicated
that the control function operated, correctly.
The dry test including loop test, function test,
start up/ shut down step test, and system
parameters setting is then performed at the installed
location. It is confirmed that those parameters and
the system can operate properly before wet test
performing. Finally, wet test composing of position
control, load limit test, transfer mode control, step
response test, ramp rate test, and step load test is
performed. During the test, the turbine is operated
by HMI. The result of the test is indicated that the
PLC-based control system can work properly.
IV. PROJECT DEVELOPMENT COST
The project development cost can be described as
the following details.
The hardware and software cost of PLC &
HMI/SCADA is 40,625 US$ (1,300,000 Baht)
while human cost is represented as 400 Man-day.
In addition, the installation and test cost is 6,250
US$ (200,000 Baht) [1].
V. CONCLUSION
The new turbine control system with PLC-based
is implemented as a pilot project for small
hydroelectric power generation. The system is
verified and confirmed by simulation and severe
tests, respectively. The test result is shown that the
system control can work properly. Besides, the
PLC system can completely be incorporated with
the original system in addition that it can be
replaced the sequential relay circuit. The developed
HMI can monitor and record the important signals
in addition control of the turbine operation. With
the usefulness of the implemented turbine control
system, the operator can comfortably work and
control the turbine. Moreover, accuracy of the
control is increased.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the project
workers for worth cooperation and Control System
and Equipment Division, Electrical Maintenance
Department, Electricity Generating Authority of
Thailand, for data and all support.
REFERENCES
[1] R. Sithisomang, and W. Akarawarananthagool,
"Small Hydro Power Plant Control System
Design and Development," Project Report, 2007
(in Thai).
[2] T. Duangsoithong, "Governor Control
Development of Mae-Ngat Hydro Power Plant,"
Technical Report, 2007 (in Thai).
BIOGRAPHIES
Tanabodee Duangsoithong received B.Eng. in Electrical
Engineering from Kasertsart University, Bangkok, Thailand in
1999. Since 2000, he has been with the turbine and generator
control system section, department of electrical maintenance,
Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand. He is currently
an electrical engineer by level 6 in the Electricity Generating
Authority of Thailand, Thailand. His interested researches are
the field of embedded technology application, PLC-based
control system, and power plant control system consisting of
governor and excitation control system using digital
technology.
Chanapan Kongnam received B.Eng. in electrical
engineering from King Mongkut Institute of Technology
North-Bangkok, Thailand in 1995. Since 1995, he was with
the turbine and generator control system section, electrical
maintenance department, Electricity Generating Authority of
Thailand. In 2004, he received M. Eng. in electrical
engineering and information technology from Rosenheim
University of Applied Sciences, Germany. He is currently a
Ph.D. student in the Electrical Engineering Department,
Chiang Mai University, Thailand. His interested researches are
the field of energy technology especially renewable electricity,
optimal power generation planning and operation, energy
storage system, efficient energy use, and optimal maintenance
schedule and planning.