APPLICATION OF CLASSICAL STEP RESPONSE METHOD TO DETERMINE THE PID CONTROLLER PARAMETERS FOR A 500 MW STEAM GENERATOR IN A THERMAL POWER PLANT

Abstract

PID controller is the most widely used controller in industries. There are many important functions for PID controller. Feedback
is provided; offsets are eliminated by integrator; future anticipated through derivative action. PID control loops are employed in
more than 95% of the control loops. Generally, the PID controller parameters are calculated based on trial and error method. In
different disciplines of engineering, attempts have been made to propose many new methods for controlling process parameters.
Whenever PID control is chosen, iterative heuristic optimization algorithms (soft computing techniques) have been proposed to
optimally determine the PID parameters. In this work, the authors have successfully applied the classical tuning methods such as
Ziegler Nichols and CHR tuning methods to calculate the PID parameters. The step response method is employed to calculate the
‘a’ and ‘L’ which is used to determine the PID parameters. This is applied to calculate the PID controller parameters for a 500
MW steam generator in a thermal power plant.