Modeling and control design for governing hydroelectric turbines with leaky Wicket gates

This paper examines a problem of governor control on a set of hydroelectric turbines that suffer from severe wicket gate leakage. Modeling of the system and steady-state behavior of each turbine is used to determine the best means of speed control. The results show that secondary water control devices may be used with the wicket gates to alleviate the effects of leakage in synchronizing the generators to the power system. The control method developed results in two distinct modes of turbine operation, one in the offline mode and the other in the online mode. A digital speed droop governor scheme is considered in the two operating modes by gain scheduling. The results of the implementation of the algorithms in a PLC are presented.