Automatic adjustment of feedforward signal in boiler controllers of thermal power plants

This paper proposes an auto-tuning method of feedforward signal in boiler control of thermal power plants by using the neural network. The neural network produces an optimal feedforward signal by tuning the weights of the network. The weights are adapted effectively by using the teaching signal of PI control output. The proposed method was evaluated based on a detailed simulator which expressed non-linear characteristics of the 600 MW actual thermal power plant at load chaning operations, showed effectiveness in the learning of the weights of the neural network, and gave an accurate control performance in the temperature control of the system. Through the evaluation, the proposed method was proved to be effectively applicable to the actual thermal plants as the automatic adjustment tool.