Improved Coordinated Control Strategy for Auxiliary Frequency Regulation of Gas–Steam Combined Cycle Units

Zunmin Hu, Yilin Zhang, Tianhai Zhang, Xinyu Xiao, Li Sun and Lei Pan ()
Additional contact information
Zunmin Hu: Jiangsu Frontier Electric Technology Co., Ltd., Nanjing 211102, China
Yilin Zhang: National Engineering Research Center of Power Generation Control and Safety, School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China
Tianhai Zhang: Jiangsu Frontier Electric Technology Co., Ltd., Nanjing 211102, China
Xinyu Xiao: Jiangsu Frontier Electric Technology Co., Ltd., Nanjing 211102, China
Li Sun: National Engineering Research Center of Power Generation Control and Safety, School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China
Lei Pan: National Engineering Research Center of Power Generation Control and Safety, School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 22, 1-21

Abstract: With the increasing penetration of renewable energy, the frequency regulation burden on thermal power units is growing significantly. Among them, combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) units are playing an increasingly important role in grid ancillary services due to their high efficiency and low emissions. This paper investigates coordinated control strategies to improve the auxiliary frequency regulation capability of CCGTs, addressing the limitations of traditional control approaches where gas turbines dominate while steam turbines respond passively. A decentralized model predictive control (MPC) strategy based on rate-limited signal decomposition is proposed to improve auxiliary frequency regulation. First, a dynamic model of the F-class CCGT systems oriented towards control is established. Then, predictive controllers are designed separately for the top and bottom cycles, with control accuracy improved through a fuzzy prediction model, Kalman filtering and state augmentation. Furthermore, a multi-scale decomposition method for AGC (Automatic Generation Control) signals is developed, separating the signals into load-following and high-frequency components, which are allocated to the gas and steam turbines respectively for coordinated response. Comparative simulations with a conventional MPC strategy demonstrate that the proposed method significantly improves power tracking speed, stability, and overshoot control, with the IAE (Integral of Absolute Error) index reduced by 83.7%, showing strong potential for practical engineering applications.

Keywords: combined cycle; decentralized predictive control; rate-limited signal decomposition; auxiliary frequency regulation; coordinated control (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/22/5997/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/22/5997/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:22:p:5997-:d:1795479

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Cassie Shen

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().