Rule-based Control Strategy for a River-based Grid-connected Hydrokinetic System

This paper presents an optimal control algorithm for improving the reliability of a river-based grid-interactive hydrokinetic system. The aim is to guarantee a reliable system operation during load demand uncertainties. The proposed system consists of a micro-hydrokinetic pumped-hydro storage (MHK-PHS) system, modelled to supply electricity to a commercial load profile. The open-loop optimization-based approach resulted in an unmet load demand and excessive energy supply, due to load demand uncertainty. Hence, a rule-based control algorithm is presented to ensure that the load demand is reliably met at all times. Thus, the results prove that the developed rule-based control algorithm, allowed the commercial load demand to be reliably met by solving both the unmet load demand and excessive energy supply challenges.