An autonomous control system for boiler-turbine units

Achieving a more autonomous power plant operation is an important part of power plant control. To be autonomous, a control system needs to provide adequate control actions in the presence of significant uncertainties and/or disturbances, such as actuator or component failures, with minimum or no human assistance. However, a reasonable degree of autonomy is difficult to obtain without incorporating intelligence in the control system. This paper presents a coordinated intelligent control scheme with a high degree of autonomy. In this scheme, a fuzzy-logic based supervisor monitors the overall plant operation and carries out the tasks of coordination, fault diagnosis, fault isolation, and fault accommodation.