Power Level Control of Nuclear Power Plants During Load Following Operation Using Fractional Order Controller Based on a Modified Algorithm

Nuclear power can play an important role to achieve a secure clean energy transition. Output power control is considered an important issue with respect to nuclear power plants (NPPs) especially during load following operation mode. In this study, a scheduled fractional order proportional integral derivative (FOPID) controller is designed in order to track the desired reference power for a nuclear reactor in a NPP. Also, a modified manta ray foraging optimization (MMRFO) algorithm is proposed to tune the five parameters of the FOPID controller. The performance of the proposed algorithm is compared with several optimization techniques using 23 benchmark functions. The comparison shows that MMRFO has the best performance. The simulation of the FOPID controller tuned by the proposed MMRFO algorithm is performed using MATLAB/Simulink and its performance is compared with classic PID controller tuned by the MMRFO algorithm. Two different dynamic simulations during load following operation of a nuclear reactor are carried out. The first case study covers the short time operation of a nuclear reactor and the second case covers the long time operation. The simulation results show an acceptable performance with high degree of accuracy for the proposed FOPID controller tuned by the modified algorithm with very low overshoot, very low steady state error and proper control signal. Also, the stability of the proposed controller is also tested using Lyapunov stability criterion which indicates the stable operation for the proposed controller in the two cases. In addition, a sensitivity analysis has been accomplished which indicates the robustness of the controller.