I heard that some control systems has auto tuning feature. it means you put the control loop into auto mode and it will itself take parameters for P,I,D.

Does it work well in sudden and large load variations in a power plant?

What are it's limitations and how can it be made effective?

Do any of you have experienced this on Emerson ovation (DCS) in power plant?

thanks and regards

 

Auto-tuners have not lived up to the originally high expectations: Many products only work well within a certain range and do not really cover all situations (e.g. fast/slow, short/ long dead time). Besides, they often have troubles with the usual imperfections (noise) or with more difficult process behaviour (open loop overshoot, inverse response).

Best alternative is still a test (open or closed loop) done by the user: Once suitable process data are available, process parameter estimation and PID tuning calculation can be done with suitable tools as our TOPAS in 10 minutes or less. And another plus: By conducting the test you always improve your understanding of the behaviour of the process, and you also have now a reference set of process parameters which can be extremely helpful should the loop get into troubles a later point in time.

Hans H. Eder, ACT
www.act-control.com