ADRC based speed control applied to a micro-hydropower plant

National audienceMicro-hydropower brings a significant contribution to the renewable energy section due to its huge potential through the world. Hydraulic turbine efficiency is sensitive to the water flow rates and the rotational speed variations, so the variable-speed operation is required to ensure the maximum efficiency in a micro-hydropower generation system (MHPGS). To realize the maximum power point tracking (MPPT), the hydro turbine rotation speed changes with the water flow rates variations, this proposes higher speed tracking demands. Moreover, a MHPGS is a typical complex nonlinear system disturbed by numerous uncertainties. Active Disturbance Rejection Control (ADRC) technology is a novel approach which can estimate and compensate the influences of internal and external disturbances in real time, which has realized excellent control performance in various fields. To improve the speed tracking performance, an ADRC based speed control is proposed in this paper. Simulation and experiment results have proved that the proposed approach can track the speed variations efficiently