Compressor Performance Control

• Also called:
– Throughput control/ Pressure Control
– Capacity control
– Process control
• Matches the compressor throughput to the load
• Can be based on controlling:
– Pd
– Ps
– Net flow (Mass flow)
– Temperature (quench)!
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In reality we can control one variable and limit three in S5

• How:
 Speed
 IGV angle
 Inlet Valve
 PERFORMANCE CONTROL PROCESS
VARIABLE SELECTION

PROCESS
PROCESS CHARACTERISTICS EXAMPLE
VARIABLE
• Significantly Variable Demand
Discharge Pressure • Plant Air Compressors
• Unlimited Supply

• Very Large Discharge Volume

Suction Pressure • Predictable Demand / Consumption
• Fluctuations in Supply
• Accept Available Gas, Compress it
Suction Pressure and Deliver to the Immediate
Downstream Process Unit
• Export Gas Compressors
• Pipeline Compressors
• Cracked Gas Compressor
(Ethylene Plant)
• Wet Gas Compressor (Coker
Unit)
• Boil Off Gas (BOG) Compressor
• Refrigeration Compressors

• Blast Furnace Blowers

• Reactive Process Requiring Certain
Discharge Mass Flow • Catalytic Cracker Main Air
Mass of Gas per Time
Compressor
 Example of Discharge Mass flow
control
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General PID Algorithm

 Compressor Performance Control

- Can be used either:

1. Standalone (Ex. we control Ps by
adjusting the speed of the Turbine SP)
2. Master
3. Load Sharing (L/S)
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• Control one loop • Limit up to 2 loops in

S3+/++ and 3 loops in S5

Control loop Limit loop

Action in 2 sides Action in 1 side

(PV being above or below SP) (Above or below the Limit)
 Direct-action vs. Reverse-acting
loop
Direct action loop:

• Direct action [loop_direct is set to True] calculates the PID error as SP – PV.
• Direct action is appropriate when raising the actuator control signal (OUT1) would
cause PV to rise.

Ex. if the PF is controlling Pd: giving higher SP will increase speed, and giving lower
SP will decrease speed.

Reverse-acting loop:

• Reverse action [loop_direct is set to False] calculates the PID error as PV – SP, so it
will decrease in response to a rising set point. Thus, reverse action is appropriate when
lowering the control signal (OUT1) would cause the control variable to rise.
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Ex. if the PF is controlling Ps: giving higher SP needs to decrease speed (so PV will
build up), thus it is configured as reverse acting loop (error = PV - SP).

• RULE:
 if the controller needs to increase its output when the SP increase then it should be
configured as direct loop.
 if the controller needs to decrease its output when the SP increase then it should be
configured as reverse loop.
 Limiting control to keep the
machine in its stable operating zone

• While controlling one primary variable, constrain the

performance control on another variable
• Exceeding limits will lead to machine or process damage
• In S5 Performance controller controls one variable and can limit
three other variables (Any combination of the below is ok).

CONTROL BUT DO NOT EXCEED

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Discharge Pressure Max. Motor Current

Suction Pressure Max. Discharge Pressure

Net Flow Min. Suction Pressure

Max. Discharge Temperature

 Power limiting with the
Performance Controller
Power limit
Rc
R1
R2
R3
A
D PIC-SP
B
C

N4
N
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N2 3
N1
Benefits:
• Maximum protection
– No machinery damage
Qs, vol • Maximize production
– Machine can be pushed
Note:
Same approach for other variables (pressures, to the limits without risk
temperatures, etc.) of damage
• If all limiting process variables exceed their set points at
the same time, control of limiting process variable 1 takes
Limiting has higher priority over the primary priority over limiting process variable 2, which takes
control variable. priority over limiting process variable 3.
 Process limiting in AS and PF
controllers
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PV = Flow
Closing discharge will reduce the
Flow (PV) accordingly N increases
which results in increasing
pressure. When the pressure
reaches a limit, the operating point
will stop at this point. Note that
the primary variable (PV=Flow)
can not be maintained due to the
limit loop.
 Interacting
Antisurge & Performance Loops
Without Decoupling Scenario
Rc
• No interaction at point A.
Interaction starts at point
B.
• Performance controller on
B discharge pressure
reduces performance to
C A PIC-SP bring pressure back to
setpoint
• Unless prevented, PIC can
drive compressor to surge
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• Antisurge controller starts

to operate at B
• Even if surge is avoided,
interaction degrades
Po
pressure control accuracy
Ps
• Results of interaction
- Ex. Disturbance, Pd increases, P/F reduced speed to bring back
PV to SP (moving to the left) (slower process than the A/S). – Large pressure deviations
- @ B, A/S valve opens asking to increase the flow through the
compressor...(moving to right)
during disturbances
- This might drive the compressor to surge!! – Increased risk of surge
 Performance & Antisurge
Controller’s interaction
• Both controllers manipulate the same
variable - the operating point of the
compressor

• The controllers have different and

sometimes conflicting objectives

• The control action of each controller

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affects the other

• This interaction starts at the surge control

line - near surge - and can cause surge
 Ways to cope with Antisurge and
Performance Loop interactions
• De-tune the loops to minimize interaction.
Result is poor pressure control, large surge
control margins and poor surge protection

• Put one loop on manual, so interaction is

not possible. Operators will usually put the
Antisurge Controller on manual.
Result - no surge protection and often
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partially open antisurge valve

• Decouple the interactions.

Result - good performance control
accuracy, good surge protection and no
energy wasted on recycle or blow off
 Interacting
Antisurge & Performance Loops
• The result of decoupling both the
A/S and the P/F controllers would
be as shown.

• Without Decoupling, we noticed

that the OP was dragged too deep
to the left towards the surge zone.

• With Decoupling (2 options):

1. To use A/S to P/F decoupling, in the P/F controller set
MODE P SS 0 5 = On [This allows the P/F controller to
receive a signal from the A/S]. Also set M5 in P/F to
(Positive value). This means the P/F controller will receive a
feed-forward signal from the A/S controller to increase its
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output (speed) when the A/S opens the valve (after point B
only). In other words, we are slowing down the
performance response (since it was reducing the speed to
the SP and now it received additional amount that it needs
to reduce as well). This will slow down the OP to get to the
SP; accordingly reduce looping. P/F acts like a receiving
party.
2. To use P/F to A/S decoupling, in the A/S controller set
MODE A SS 0 8 = On [This allows the A/S controller to
receive a signal from the P/F]. Also set M8 in A/S to
(Negative value). This means the A/S controller will receive
a feed-forward signal from the P/F controller to increase its
output to ASV when the P/F reduces its output (speed)
(after point B only) since A/S decoupling works when the
DEV is negative only. This will push the OP to the right side
more; accordingly reduce looping. A/S acts like a receiving
party.
This leads to a more stable process.
 Output Tracking
• The output of the Performance controller is often used to supply a remote set
point to a Speed controller which is controlling a drive turbine or motor.
• If the Speed controller is switched from remote operation or is in a limit condition,
it will ignore the remote set point from the Performance controller.
• When this occurs, the Performance controller output will track the speed from the
Speed controller and maintain its output at a level corresponding to that speed.
This provides a bumpless transfer when the Speed controller begins using the
remote set point from the Performance controller again.

• The TRACK variable (under PF/Status/Operator) is set to True when the

Performance controller is tracking the speed of the Speed controller and is
maintaining its output at a level corresponding to that speed. A “Speed Tracking
Initiated” event will be posted when speed tracking (through I/O) is activated, and
a “Speed Tracking Released” event posted when speed tracking has ceased.
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• The Performance controller receives three inputs from a speed controller:

 a speed track boolean input,
 a speed limit boolean input, and
 a speed track set point numeric input.
• When the Series 5 Performance controller is used with a Series 5 Speed
controller, these inputs are obtained serially via a communication packet
(Speed_PacketID). The speed_track_SP_ani_enable is used to enable and
disable speed tracking via the speed_track_SP analog input, and has priority over
the Speed_PacketID parameter.
• When tracking is on, this means the output is being kept at a level corresponding to the actual
speed because the speed governor is not using its remote set point (perhaps because of
manual or local set point operation or a speed limiting condition).
 Performance Override Control
(POC)

VSDS

Compressor

Load
ST FT PsT TsT PdT TdT PIC HIC
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

UIC
Suction Process
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1
Pd P Process
Serial
network

• Compressor is controlled on Pd by PIC-1

• HIC-1 controls the process load and can be used to create process
disturbances
• Controllers communicate via serial communication to computer running the
simulation
• In this example, in POC we limit the process pressure Pprocess while in A/S
(if limiting is enabled) we limit Pd.
 Performance Override Control
(POC)
• POC can be thought as Limiting from the P/F controller.

• POC must be configured in both the P/F and A/S controllers, however the tuning
of the POC PID control loop is done within the P/F controller.

• In Limiting using A/S only, we control the A/S valve opening. If we are controlling
Pd for example and it went up then we open the A/S valve to reduce Pd. So the
A/S valve is the only control element thus more and more energy loss.

• If we implement Limiting in the P/F controller, once PV goes above SP it will start
to reduce the speed. The response time to reduce the speed and reduce Pd is
slow.
• The process might need a faster response/help to protect the compressor. If Pd
is still increasing and it hits POC-SP, then the P/F controller opens the A/S valve
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(even the DEV is +tive) just enough until Pd goes below POC-SP. At this point the
speed (P/F) can control Pd and the A/S valve closes.

• The POC set point can be specified using the POC_SP parameter, or can be
determined as an offset from the set point for the primary or alternate PID control
loop within the Performance controller (by setting the POC_relative_SP_enable).

• The POC function can only move the antisurge valve in the open direction.
• The POC function can be configured to be whether high or low limit.
• Low limit POC can be implemented using the antisurge controller of the suction
pressure control for example, if Ps drops below the POC set point, the
compressor antisurge controller will open its antisurge valve to increase the
suction pressure.
 Performance Override Control
(POC)
Benefits PV
• Fast response during fast upsets PID
• Avoid process trips due to lack of PV
response in performance control SP
PI
elements (One-Sided)
• Allows closer operation to process limits POC-SP
without taking risk
• Notice that POC is an additional PI loop DEV from other
loadsharing
with its own tuning coefficients (tuned to controllers
Average Master
Controller
open the A/S very quickly).
Analog Inputs
Rc

DEV
FA
Relief valve Mode
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setting DEV DEV DEV

POC-SP
PV SP
Primary Load Primary
PIC-SP PI RT response balancing response

+ +

Antisurge Loop Loop Loadsharing

Decoupling Decoupling
Controller Controller

To antisurge valve To performance

2
qr control element
 Filtered POC

The P/F controller can also be configured to look for rapid changes in the selected POC process
variable. The POC_filter_enable parameter must be set to True to enable this function.

The P/F controller compares the filtered value (Vf) to the unfiltered value (V). If (V) exceeds
(Vf) by more than the threshold (db) within the filter time (POC_filter_Tf ) then a filtered POC
proportional response (POCf) of greater than zero will result, as shown in the following
equation:
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The equation above is used when the filtered POC response is

configured as a high (increasing) limit (POC_filter_type =
HIGH). If the filtered POC response is configured as a low
(decreasing) limit (POC_filter_type = LOW), the following
equation is used:
 Filtered POC

The Performance controller can calculate a filtered POC proportional response

(POCf, Perf) for a single variable, while the Antisurge controller can calculate
filtered POC proportional responses (POCf, AS1 and POCf, AS2) for up to two
variables, selected from those listed in the below table, using the
POC1_filter_channel and POC2_filter_channel parameters.
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© Compressor Controls Corporation

POC parameters in Config P/F

 POC_relative_SP
POC_relative_SP_enable
When the POC_relative_SP_enable parameter is False, the POC set point is specified as an
absolute set point using the POC_SP parameter.

When it is set to True, the POC set point is specified as an offset from the set point of the PID loop within the
Performance controller:
• When the POC PID loop is configured as a high limit (loop_type),
POC1_SP = PID SP + POC_relative_SP
• When the POC PID loop is configured as a low limit (loop_type),
POC1_SP = PID SP – POC_relative_SP

• If the Performance controller is configured as a Load Sharing controller (using the

controller_type parameter), the offset (POC_relative_SP) is applied to the alternate PID control
loop set point when that loop is active. Otherwise, for any other type of Performance controller, the offset
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(POC_relative_SP) is applied to the primary PID control loop set point.

Note: The controller checks that the same process variable has been selected for both the POC
PID loop and the main PID loop. If not, the POC set point is set equal to POC_SP.
 Some important parameters in PF

To configure the channel to control: To enable local SP: To give a local SP:
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 MOR for PF controller (S5)
• Setting the hard_manual_enable parameter to True will initiate the Hard Manual function
within the Performance controller. The Hard_Manual_dgi will also initiate the Hard Manual
function within the Performance controller. If either is True, the Hard Manual function will be
active.
• The Hard Manual function holds the controller in manual and allows the operator to adjust the
output of the Performance controller to any value, even if it causes a limiting constraint to be
violated. A Stop, Idle, or any Run/Stop input will not restore automatic control, and the limiting
control loops will not affect the control response, even when a limiting variable is beyond its
threshold. During Remote Manual operation, the controller is also prevented from switching
from remote manual to automatic control.
• Warning: The Hard Manual function should not be permanently activated because it
leaves the compressor unprotected from any limiting constraints.
• The Hard_Manual digital output is set to True to when the Hard Manual function is active.

Summary
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• hard_manual_enable False  Controller will restore Automatic operation if a

Stop command is received while in Manual. False is the safe setting.
• hard_manual_enable True  Controller will NOT restore Automatic operation
if a Stop command is received while in Manual and will stay in Manual.
 man_SP_recall

• If man_SP_recall is set to False, the local set points will track their process
variables during manual operation (unless the process variable has failed).
When the controller is switched back to automatic control, the local SP no
longer tracks the process variable and does not change. The set point in
CCC Config will equal the local set point reached.

• If man_SP_recall is set to True, the local set points will remain at the current
level during manual operation. When the controller is switched back to
automatic control, the set point will ramp to the local set point set in CCC
Config.
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 S5 P/F Fallbacks
• Run Freeze Fallback
The Run Freeze fallback strategy is continuously enabled within the Performance controller.

• Alternate PID Control Fallback

The controller can be configured to fall back from the Primary Performance Control Response PID loop to the Alternate
Performance Control Response PID loop when the primary PID loop process variable fails (goto_alternate_enable). A valid
alternate process variable input must be configured before this fallback is allowed.
If the alternate PID fallback is disabled or a valid alternate PV is not configured, the controller will go to the Run Freeze
Fallback when the primary process variable fails. When the primary process variable is restored, control will return to the
primary PID control loop.

• Primary PID Control Fallback

The controller can also be configured to fall back from the Alternate Performance Control Response PID loop to the Primary
Performance Control Response PID loop when the alternate PID loop process variable fails (goto_primary_enable). A valid
primary process variable input must be configured before this fallback is allowed. If the primary PID fallback is disabled or a
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valid primary PV is not configured, the controller will go to the Run Freeze Fallback when the alternate process variable fails.
When the alternate process variable is restored, control will return to the alternate PID control loop. When the alternate
process variable is restored, control will return to the alternate PID control loop.

• Limiting Control Fallback

If the limiting control fallback is enabled (limit_fail_run_freeze is set to True), the controller will go to the Run Freeze Fallback
if the PV input for any enabled limiting control loop fails.

• Loss of Remote Set Point (loss of communication with the Master controller)
The loss of the remote set point analog input for the primary and alternate PID control loops (remote_SP_failure or
alt_remote_SP_failure = True) will trigger one of the fallback modes (FILTERED SP, DEFAULT SP, or GOTO LOCAL
CONTROL). The remote_SP_FB_mode and alt_remote_SP_FB_mode parameters are used to select the fallback modes for
the primary and alternate loops, respectively.

• Default Signal Variables

Default values can be substituted for failed pressure and temperature inputs used in the calculation of the mass flow (Pfe,
Tfe).
© Compressor Controls Corporation

Start-up Sequence
 Start-up Sequence

From the STOP state, the Performance Controller begins automatic control
when the following conditions are satisfied:

The STOP discrete input to the performance controller is cleared.

Once the above condition is met, the controller begins ramping its output at the
specified ramp rate (start_ramp_rate). The controller will then transition to the
RUN state when any of the following conditions occur:
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the Performance Controller output exceeds the specified minimum start

threshold (start_ramp_target)
the outputs of all of the companion Antisurge controllers are below a
specified maximum threshold (antisurge_out_level)
the selected normalized PID error falls below a specified threshold
(error_threshold)
 Performance Controller Sequencing
with Speed governor

• Compressor/Turbine start‐up sequencing to minimum governor speed is in the

scope of the speed governor.
• The governor is in LOCAL control during operations below minimum governor.
• Using a discrete signal, the governor indicates to the Performance Controller it
is in LOCAL control. In LOCAL control, the governor ignores the analog remote
speed set point received from the Performance Controller.
• The Performance Controller is in the TRACK mode during the start‐up
sequencing. The Performance Controller is also tracking the governor’s primary
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control variable via an analog input.

• Once minimum governor speed is attained, the governor can be switched to
REMOTE control.
• Using the discrete signal, the governor indicates to the Performance Controller
it is in REMOTE control. In REMOTE control, the governor responds to the
analog remote speed set point received from the Performance Controller. The
Performance Controller switches to the RUN mode and commences PID
control.
© Compressor Controls Corporation

Shut-down Sequence