De La Salle University Manila, ECE Technical Report, September 1, 2004

CONCEPTUAL DESIGN OF A RULE-BASE FOR A MICRO-HYDRO

POWER PLANT FEEDBACK CONTROL SYSTEM
Emmanuel A. Gonzalez1, Jingel Tio2 and Felicito S. Caluyo3
Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering
College of Engineering
De La Salle University, Manila
2401 Taft Ave., Malate, Manila 1004, Philippines
1

gonzaleze@dlsu.edu.ph
2
tioj@dlsu.edu.ph
3
caluyof@dlsu.edu.ph

ABSTRACT
This paper presents the conceptual design of a rule base
for a feedback control system for the regulation of a
micro-hydro power plant. Included in this paper is the
discussion on the feedback control system based on the
use of machine intelligence for the generator terminal
voltage and frequency regulation. The analysis and
discussion of the feedback control system is also
presented. Rule base models and modeling techniques are
discussed with a design example using a Mamdanian
Fuzzy Logic system.
I.

Fig. 1. Components of the micro-hydro power plant.

INTRODUCTION

and discussed in detail. In Section III, the general

feedback control system diagram is discussed with further
discussion on some important parts of the system. In
Section IV, the machine intelligence that is implemented
in the control system is discussed. A design example
using Mamdani-type Fuzzy Logic is discussed in Section
V. Conclusions are discussed in Section VI.

The stability of a small power system, such as a microhydro power plant has been an issue that arises to
engineers within its development. With a small amount of
power that is fed to an electricity grid, which is usually
less than 100kW, it has been proven that the plants
stability is a serious problem and is a major concern
especially in small networks of application [1].

II. THE MICRO-HYDRO POWER PLANT

The regulation of the terminal voltage and its frequency

has been developed to impede the causes of instability
using different methods such as feedback control [1], and
the application of electronic load controllers [2], [3].
Feedback control which has the advantage of controlling
the flow rate of the water intake is an efficient method of
power plant regulation. On the other hand, application of
dump loads with some circuitries can be less difficult to
implement.

The micro-hydro power plant used in this research is

composed of a pump and a water tank that serves as the
source of water flow and energy that is used to run the
turbine and generator. A tailwater reservoir is also
included to ensure that the water is recirculated through
the entire system. The water from the pump and tank is
fed to a turbine via a gate valve that controls the flow rate
of water. The turbine is connected to a synchronous
generator that converts the mechanical energy of the
turbine to an electrical energy that can be utilized by
connecting a load through the terminals of the generator.
The block diagram of the micro-hydro power plant is
shown in Fig. 1.

In this paper, the conceptual design of a feedback control

system is discussed with its impact in the non-linear
operation of the micro-hydro power plant. In Section II,
the overall micro-hydro power plant system is introduced

De La Salle University Manila, ECE Technical Report, September 1, 2004

Fig. 2. Block diagram of the proposed feedback control system for the
regulation of the micro-hydro power plant.

Fig. 4. An approach for the modeling of a rule-base.

Fig. 3. Block diagram of the inference engine system.

The gate valve, on the other hand, is controlled by a servo

motor which is driven by the servo motor interface circuit
inside the feedback control system which is controlled by
a microcontroller. The servo-motor acts as a counter-part
of a human hand that rotates the valve for controlling the
water flow rate to the turbine.

Problems arise with the use of a micro-hydro power plant

which involves: (1) the decrease in the generator terminal
voltage with resistive loads, (2) decrease in the generator
terminal voltage with lagging loads, (i.e. capacitive loads),
and (3) increase in the generator terminal voltage with
leading loads, (i.e. inductive loads), which happens when
the generator is loaded. Experimentally, it has been
proven that the decrease in the terminal voltage for a
resistive and capacitive load is about 8 to 20 per cent
below its no-load value, and about 25 to 50 per cent
below its no-load value, respectively [3].

The control system consists of a signal conditioning

system that converts the measured terminal voltage to be
understood by the processor. The heart of the feedback
control system consists of a microcontroller that decides
on the control of the servo motor based on measured
terminal voltage.
The control system acquires two inputs from the generator:
the (1) present voltage x [ n ] , and its (2) rate-of-change

III. THE FEEDBACK CONTROL SYSTEM

x [ n ] . It is used to determine not only the present

characteristics of the terminal voltage, but also its rate-ofchange. These values are inputted to a digital control
system that samples these data to digital values through
an analog-to-digital converter built inside the
microcontroller.

The feedback control system is shown in Fig. 2,

emphasizing on its integration to the micro-hydro power
plant. The output voltage generated by the turbinesynchronous generator tandem is a function mainly of the
input water flow rate to the turbine, which is controlled by
a gate valve. However, it is also expected that the output
voltage generated by the plant is non-linear with respect
to the input flow rate because of two reasons: (1) water
flow rate saturation due to the diameter of the pipes, and
(2) backlash which results for the non-linear
characteristics of the turbine-synchronous generator
tandem.

The output of the control system is the signal that will

turn the gate valve to a desired angle, , which in turn will
direct the desired water flow rate, rF(t), to the turbine.
Hence, the characterization of the servo-gate-valve
system by determining the characteristics of the flow rate
with respect to the angle of turn is needed. This is done by
setting the gate valve at a certain angle, and then
measuring the water flow rate using any conventional
2

De La Salle University Manila, ECE Technical Report, September 1, 2004

spaces can also be analyzed to determine

models validity with the rule model.

method. With this, a characteristic curve of the water flow

rate with respect to the valve turn angle is obtained.

B. Rule-Base Models

IV. INCORPORATION OF MACHINE

INTELLIGENCE

Based on some experimentation, a set of rules is

developed, each of which describes the local input-output
relation, typically in linear form:

The implementation of machine intelligence is done with

a microcontroller. Before implementing intelligent
algorithms, a model must first be constructed. In this
section the modeling approach is discussed in the first
part of this section. The second part discusses three rulebase models that can be used as a control approach.

where, i = 1,2,,K.

A. Modelling Approach

Here Ri is the ith rule, x = x1 ,..., xn

Ri : if x1 is Ai1 and and xn is Ain then yi is Bi

(1)

is the input

(antecedent) variable, Ai1,Ain are sets defined in the

antecedent space, yi is the rule output (consequent)
variable, Bi is a set defined in the consequent space, and K
denotes the number of rules in the rule base.

The proposed individual steps in the modeling of the

control algorithm are shown in Fig. 4. Such steps in the
development of the model are shown with the assumption
that the data gathered is proper and correct.

The block diagram describing the inference engine system

that uses the input-output relations is shown in Fig. 3. The
system is a two-input-single-output (TISO) system that
uses the present voltage value and the change of the
voltage as its inputs, and the desired flow rate at the
output. The rule base of K rules is coupled to the
inference engine that functions as an intelligent watchdog.

Step 1: Rule-base selection. Different types of rulebase structures and models can be used
depending on a situation where that rule-base
is best suited, such as the three examples
discussed in the second part of this section. It
is basically based from the designers point of
view on how the micro-hydro power plant can
be controlled, which is also based on the
designers experience.

The sets in the antecedent and consequent of the rules are

obtained from Eq. 1.
Ri : if x [ n ] is Ai1 and x [ n ] is Ai2 then y [ n ] is Bi

Step 2: Initial rule-base formulation. The formulation

of the initial rule-base is also based on
intuitiveness and uncertainties that rises during
the design of the micro-hydro power plant.
The rules that constitute the model are
extracted in an automated way, in which, the
exact procedure depends on the type of model
used.

(2)

where x [ n ] is the measured present voltage at sample

n, x [ n ] is the change of the voltage which is defined as
the difference of the present value to the previous value,
also denote in Eq. 3.
x [ n ] =

Step 3: Rule-base simplification. The initial rule-base

obtained from data may be redundant and
unnecessarily complex as it is based on
numerical optimization [6]. The complexity
can be reduced by using similarity analysis,
where sets representing compatible or
redundant concepts are identified and merged.

x [ n ] x [ n 1]

(3)

y [ n ] is the output desired flow rate of the water intake to

the turbine.
Since the micro-hydro power plant is comprised of some
non-linear characteristics, it is therefore necessary to
develop a non-linear intelligent scheme to solve this
problem. One way of implementing such non-linear
intelligence is applying Mamdanian Fuzzy Logic to the
system, as shown in Fig. 5 [5]. Based on the set of rules
developed earlier, the local input-output relation is then
converted into a non-linear form, comprising of linguistic

Step 4: Rule validation. The final model is either

accepted as appropriate for the micro-hydro
power plant or is rejected to evaluation and
validation. An important role in the rule
validation procedure is the inspection of the
rule model that was used. The input and output

De La Salle University Manila, ECE Technical Report, September 1, 2004

Fig. 5. A Mamdanian fuzzy logic system.

Bi1,,Bin are sets defined in the consequent space, and K

denotes the number of rules in the rule base.

variables. The structure for the fuzzy rules similar to Eq

(1) has fuzzy sets in linguistic form such as small,
medium, and high, both input and output, such that a
fuzzy rule would have the form

V. DESIGN EXAMPLE
Ri : if x1 is Ai1 and and xn is Ain then yi is Bi

(4)

Let x [ n ] be the present sample voltage under an input

space U, defined to be

where the input variables Ai1,,Ain and the output variable

Bi are composed of fuzzy linguistic sets. An example of
this form is shown in Eq. 5.
R1 : if x [ n ] is high and x [ n ] is high then y [ n ] is
low.

U {150, 300} volts.

(5)

Let x [ n ] be the rate-of-change of voltage value (i.e. the

difference between the present value and previous value),
under an input space V, defined to be

Two modules were added to compensate the crispness of

the input and output values. The fuzzification and
defuzzification engines function as mapping devices that
convert the crispness of the inputs to a fuzzy membership
value, and vise-versa.

V {20, 20} volts.

Y {0, 2 } degrees.

(6)

where, i = 1,2,,K.

[ x1 ,..., xn ]

(9)

It is assumed that a 0-degree of angular knob displace

corresponds to a 0 lb/sec flow rate, and a 2 -degree of
angular knob displace corresponds to a 1000 lbs/sec flow
rate. Another assumption is that, the water flow rate to the
turbine corresponds with the degree of turn of the valve
knob, characterizing it to be linear. It is also assumed that
the nominal flow rate of water is achieved at a -degree
angular displacement.

Another method in applying Fuzzy Logic for machine

intelligence is the use of the Takagi-Sugeno approach [4],
which has rules in the form

Here Ri is the ith rule, x =

(8)

Let y [ n ] be the desired control signal to the gate valve

for the control of the water flow rate, under the output
space Y, which is defined as

However, the determination of the fuzzy rules and fuzzy

membership function are developed through trial and
error. Model building by input-output data is
characterized by two things; one is a mathematical tool to
express a system model and the other is the method of
identification [4].

Ri : if x1 is Ai1 and and xn is Ain then yi = Bi0 +

Bi1x1 + + Binxn

(7)

By using the modeling steps in the previous section, the

following characteristics and model of the rule-base has
been chosen:

is the input

(antecedent) variable, Ai1,Ain are sets defined in the

antecedent space, yi is the rule output (consequent)
variable which a function of input variable vector x,

Rule-base model: Mamdani type.

Linguistic variables:

De La Salle University Manila, ECE Technical Report, September 1, 2004

Fig. 7. A surface plot showing the control area of the rule-base.

R5 :

if x [ n ] is low and x [ n ] is pos_high then

y [ n ] is normal.

R6 :

if x [ n ] is normal and x [ n ] is neg_large

then y [ n ] is very_high.

R7 :

if x [ n ] is normal and x [ n ] is neg_small

then y [ n ] is high.

Fig. 6. Input and output membership functions.

R8 :

if x [ n ] is normal and x [ n ] is zero then

y [ n ] is normal.

R9 :

x [ n ] : {low, normal, high}

then y [ n ] is low.

x [ n ] : {negative_large, negative_small, zero,

y [n] :

R10 : if x [ n ] is normal and x [ n ] is pos_high then

positive_small, positive_large}
{very_low, low, normal, high, very_high}.

y [ n ] is very_low.

R11 : if x [ n ] is high and x [ n ] is neg_large then

The membership functions of the linguistic variables

under their respective spaces are shown in Fig. 6.

y [ n ] is normal.

R12 : if x [ n ] is high and x [ n ] is neg_small then

The developed rule-base in the form of Eq. 5 is composed

of 15 rules.
R1 :

y [ n ] is low.

R13 : if x [ n ] is high and x [ n ] is zero then y [ n ]

is low.
R14 : if x [ n ] is high and x [ n ] is pos_small then

if x [ n ] is low and x [ n ] is neg_large then

y [ n ] is very_high.

R2 :

y [ n ] is low.

if x [ n ] is low and x [ n ] is neg_small then

R15 : if x [ n ] is high and x [ n ] is pos_high then

y [ n ] is high.

R3 :
R4 :

if x [ n ] is normal and x [ n ] is pos_small

y [ n ] is very_low.

if x [ n ] is low and x [ n ] is zero then y [ n ] is

high.
if x [ n ] is low and x [ n ] is pos_small then

With the 15 rules running the fuzzy logic system and with
a defuzzification method by using centriodal method, the
surface plot is obtained in Fig. 7. Rule-base simplification
can be done by merging rules 2, 3, 4, and merging rules

y [ n ] is high.

De La Salle University Manila, ECE Technical Report, September 1, 2004

12, 13, 14, since their output are all high and low,
respectively.

[6] M. Setnes and R. Babuska, Fuzzy modeling for

predictive control, Fuzzy control: synthesis and
analysis, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2000.

VI. CONCLUSION

[7] F. S. Caluyo, A PLD-based electronic load

controller for microhydroelectric power plant.

The authors had proposed a methodology for rule base

design of a feedback control system for a micro-hydro
power plant. It is also shown that the application of
machine intelligence by using rules that describe the local
input-output relation is applicable and can be used as a
backbone for intelligence tuning. However, the
implementation of the proposed controller can display
some irregularity especially since the micro-hydro power
plant constitutes non-linear parameters and characteristics.
One way to compensate such non-linearities is to apply
some sort of non-linear machine intelligence such as the
use of Fuzzy Logic.
The author has also proposed a rule-base modeling
approach with three rule-base models that can be used in
the design of the control strategy. It has been defined that
these rules are likely in the form of if-then statements
which vary depending on the design considerations and
data gathered. A design example by using the Mamdani
Fuzzy Model was used to describe the behavior of the
micro-hydro power plant control system, in which a
surface plot that shows the control area is presented.
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K. L. S. Kothalawa, J. Peiris, and I. Keerthiratne,
Implementation of a portable micro-hydro power
plant using an induction generator controller.
[3] C. S. Siskind, Electrical Machines, New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1966.
[4] T. Takagi, and M. Sugeno, Fuzzy identification of
systems and its applications to modeling and
control, IEEE Trans. Syst., Man., and Cybern., vol.
SMC-15, no. 1, pp. 116-132, Jan./Feb. 1985.
[5] E. H. Mamdani, Application of fuzzy algorithms for
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121, no. 12, pp. 1585-1588, 1976.