Closed loop identification of a 600 MW Benson boiler

MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) system identification experiments on the boiler system of a 600-MW power plant are reported. Five input variables were perturbed simultaneously by excitation of the set points with independent binary sequences. Several signal analysis and prediction error identification methods have been applied. The main issue of this research is to investigate the feasibility of closed-loop identification for large-scale industrial processes. The closed-loop situation in combination with the highly different time constants in different parts of the boiler made partitioning in subsystems necessary