Hydro Power Plant Performance Optimization Using Metaheuristics

In this paper, using MATLAB/Simulink software environment, connectivity of multiple power plant component models is established for simulating the operation of a typical small hydropower plant with open channels, regulators, Semi Kaplan turbines, synchronous generators, and exciters. To reduce the errors of various types during the transient phase, the simulated model is augmented with a PI controller. Firefly and cuckoo Search optimization are used for tuning the PI controller parameters. It is observed that Firefly optimization provides the best tuning of PI controller parameters for this problem resulting in better error reduction as compared to Cuckoo search optimization.