A Sliding Mode Control Approach for Gas Turbine Power Generators

Gas Turbines are raising nowadays growing interest in the power generation industry. Being able to regulate their power production faster than any other form of conventional source, they are extremely valuable in compensating stochastic power fluctuations deriving from renewable energy sources in large scale electrical grids, preserving grid stability, etc. In this context, gas turbines dynamical performance plays a key role as it needs to be enhanced compatibly with preserving the machine lifetime. Nonlinear model based control systems can effectively deal with this problem, exploiting the system structure to obtain optimal dynamical performance. Therefore, this paper aims at developing a Sliding Mode model based control for gas turbines and at comparing the results obtained by its application on a heavy duty Ansaldo Gas Turbine model (AE94.3A) with the ones obtained thanks to the traditional controls employed in these applications.