An anti-disturbance ADRC based MPPT for variable speed micro-hydropower plant

Micro-hydropower has been paid more attention for its huge potential in the renewable energy section. The hydraulic turbine efficiency is sensitive to the water flow rates and rotation speed variations, which makes the variable speed operation preferable to ensure the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) in a micro-hydropower generation system (MHPGS). However, a MHPGS is a complex coupled nonlinear system disturbed by large internal dynamics and external disturbances, which bring negative influences on the speeding tracking performance. The active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) has advantages in dealing with large uncertainties, as it can estimate both internal and external disturbances and then compensate the influences in the closed loop dynamics in real time. To improve the anti-disturbance ability of the speed tracking process for a MHPGS, an ADRC based MPPT strategy is put up in this paper. Finally, simulation and experiment results have proved the high efficiency of the proposed strategy.