Combined cycle power plant optimization based on supervisory predictive controllers

This work considers the optimization of a combined cycle power plant by using supervisory controllers for the turbines and boiler. The design of a hybrid predictive supervisory controller for a gas turbine is based on a state space discrete model including the switching behavior of a PI control system. The control design is based on an objective function that represents the economic and regulatory performance of a gas turbine, the economic and regulatory performance of a boiler and the regulatory performance of a steam turbine by using a dynamic optimal set-point for the regulatory level. The proposed algorithms are applied to the gas turbine, boiler and steam turbine of a thermal power plant and compared with the standard control strategy with constant optimal set-points.