CHAPTER 8

APPLICATION OF FUZZY LOGIC TO POWER PLANT

8.1 Introduction
In this chapter the application of fuzzy logic for the control of reservior water level
near a hydroelectric plant is discussed. In this hydroelectric power plant, water
from a river is diverted and stored in a reservoir for further use. It is required that
the water level in the reservoir be kept at a certain height. There are usually two
valves (an inlet and an outlet valve) that control the reservoir water level.
There are several assumptions made for this application to make the system simple
as well as understandable. The assumptions are
1. The main river is never dry.
2. As we are concerned with the maintaining the reservoir water level, only the
inlet valve is considered to control the water level.
3. The outflow is considered for different scenarios, i.e., constant, ramping up,
ramping down and sinusoidal. These scenarios are described in detail
in Appendix B.
8.2 Fuzzy Controller Architecture
A simple layout of the power plant is shown in Figure 8.1. The block diagram of
the fuzzy controller is shown in Figure 8.2.

Figure 8.1 Simple layout of the power station

Figure 8.2 Fuzzy Controller

The fuzzy variables are the error, e between the required water level and the actual
water level, and the control output, u controls valve A.
8.3 Fuzzification
The fuzzy input variable is the error between the actual volume and the volume
setpoint. The fuzzy output variable is the control action. The fuzzy
variable error consists of three fuzzy sets, i.e., negative,zero and positive. The
universe of discourse for the error fuzzy set is given as
Negative [0, -p]

 Zero [-q, q]
Positive [0, r]
where p, q and r are real numbers, typically between 0 and 15. The above
expression means that fuzzy set negative is active from -p to 0 , otherwise it is
zero. Similarly, fuzzy set zero is active from -q to qand fuzzy set positive is
between 0 to r. The membership function is shown in Figure 8.3.

Figure 8.3: Error Fuzzy Set

Example 8.1

Suppose the fuzzy set negative is defined from 0 to -15, zero fuzzy set from -5 to
+5 and positive fuzzy set from 0 to 15 as shown in Figure 8.3. Let the actual water
volume be 96.5 m3 and the volume setpoint be 100 m3, then the error is -3.5%. The
fuzzified output for the three fuzzy sets is given by

These results are shown more clearly in Figure 8.4.

Figure 8.4: Fuzzified output as mentioned in Example 8.1.

8.4 Output Fuzzy Set
The control valve action is considered to be the fuzzy output set. It determines by
what percentage the inlet valve should be open. The output fuzzy variable control
action has the universe of discourse from 0% to 100%. The control action has two
fuzzy variables, i.e., close and open. The universe of discourse for each member of
the fuzzy set is
Close [-p, p]
Open [0, q]
where p and q are real numbers, typically between 0 and 100. The membership
function of control action is shown pictorially in Figure 8.5. The close control
action is symmetric about the origin to insure that a zero-valued output is
achievable during centroid defuzzification.

Figure 8.5 Membership function of output

8.5 Knowledge Base

The rules associated with the controller are shown in Table 8.1.
Table 8.1 Fuzzy control rules
Rule

Error, e

Control Action, u

negative

open

zero

close

positive

close

Thus three rules associated with the controller are used to control the water level in
the reservoir. The defuzzified output controls the proper operation of valve A. The
defuzzification is done with the centroid method. The process of centroid
defuzzification is shown in the Excel simulation.
8.6 Rule Implication
The Mamdani implication rule is used to map the input to the output. The
Mamdani implication rule is given as
(8.1)

where A(x) is the input membership function and B(y) is the output membership
function. The implication result is a fuzzy set, which is a minimum of the
membership function of the input (error) and output (control action). The input is
the fuzzified error signal. The minimum membership values for the antecedent
(input) propagates through to the consequent and truncates the membership
function for the consequent (output) of each rule.
Example 8.2

Here the data from Example 8.1 is used with Rule 2 to demonstrate the Mamdani
implication procedure. Rule 2 states that "if the error between the actual volume of
water and the volume setpoint is zero, then the control action is close." First, the
minimum of the antecedent (error) is given by

The result of implication for Rule 2 is shown in Figure 8.6.

Figure 8.6: Implication Result for Example 8.2

8.7 Defuzzification
The implication result obtained for each rule should be aggregated and defuzzified
to obtain a single crisp values. The centroid defuzzification technique (from section
6.3) is used here as shown by
(8.2)

where x* is defuzzified output, output is the aggregated resultant membership

function of the three output fuzzy sets, and x is the universe of discourse.
Example 8.3

This example shows the centroid defuzzification procedure for the fuzzy controller.
The actual volume of water is 97.5 m3 and the volume setpoint is 100 m3, which
equates to an error of -2.5 %. The result of the Mamdani implication is shown in
Figure 8.7. The fuzzified error can be written as

The Mamdani implication applied to each rule given in Table 8.1 can be written as
For Rule 1:

For Rule 2:

For Rule 3:

The above results are shown graphically in Figure 8.7. The result obtained for each
rule from the Mamdani implication operator is aggregated together as shown in
Figure 8.8. The result of Figure 8.8 is defuzzified to obtain the crisp output. The
centroid of the plot shown in Figure 8.8 is taken to obtain the centroid
defuzzification. The centroid defuzzification is given by

The defuzzified output is found to be 34%, which means that the inlet valve is
open by only 34% of its full capacity. The inflow is known to be 1 m 3/min of water
when the valve is fully open. Thus, for an error -2.5%, the inflow is 0.34 m 3/min.

Figure 8.7 Mamdani Implication Rule

Figure 8.8: Aggregation of the result obtained in Figure 8.7

8.8 Simulation Description
A simulation of the power plant is provided using Excel. The water volume in the
reservoir is controlled with the measured error between the actual volume of water
and the volume setpoint. The outflow is considered to be one of the four given
scenarios. The user may add their own scenario and examine the result. The
simulation is interactive and flexible. The user can change various parameters and

investigate the changes in the results. A detailed description of the simulation is

presented in Appendix B.
8.9 Remark
This is a very simple fuzzy level controller but it clearly explains how fuzzy logic
can be used for automation. The simulation used in this chapter explains the
concept of an adaptive fuzzy controller. The reader should use the simulation to
understand the concepts explained in this chapter.
8.10 Reference
1. T. J. Ross, Fuzzy Logic with Engineering Applications, MacGraw-Hill, Inc,
1995.
8.11 Exercises
1. For the universe of discourse defined in Example 8.1, find the membership
function values for each error fuzzy set given an error of -1.5%.
2. For the -1.5% error above, determine the Mamdani implication result for
each of the three rules defined in Table 8.1.
3. Find the defuzzified result for -1.5% error using the centroid defuzzification
technique described in Example 8.3.
4. For the universe of discourse defined in Example 8.1, find the membership
function values for each error fuzzy set given an error of -2%.
5. For the -2% error above, determine the Mamdani implication result for each
of the three rules defined in Table 8.1.
6. Find the defuzzified result for -2% error using the centroid defuzzification
technique described in Example 8.3.
7. Find the defuzzified control action using the maximum defuzzification
technique for an error of -2.5%.
8. Execute the Excel simulation for the constant outflow pattern, and give the
values of the inflow, outflow, water volume and error at time = 20 min.
9. Execute the Excel simulation for the ramping up outflow pattern and give
the values of inflow, outflow, water volume and error at time = 20 min.
10.Execute the Excel simulation for the ramping down outflow pattern and give
the values of inflow, outflow, water volume and error at time = 20 min.

11. Execute the Excel simulation for the sinusoidal outflow pattern and give the
values of inflow, outflow, water volume and error at time = 100 min.
12.Change the universe of discourse for negative error fuzzy set in the ErrorFuzzification worksheet of the Excel simulation to the following values.
Error

(Negative)

Error

(Zero)

Error

(Positive)

-15

-15

-5

-5

10

15

15

Repeat Exercises 8.8, 8.9, 8.10 and 8.11 using the above error fuzzy set.
13.Change the universe of discourse for zero error fuzzy set in the ErrorFuzzification worksheet of the Excel simulation to the following values
Error

(Negative)

Error

(Zero)

Error

(Positive)

-15

-15

-10

-2.5

10

2.5

15

15

Repeat Exercises 8.8, 8.9, 8.10 and 8.11 using the above error fuzzy set.
14.Change the universe of discourse for positive error fuzzy set in the ErrorFuzzification worksheet of the Excel simulation to the following values
Error

(Negative)

Error

(Zero)

Error

(Positive)

-15

-15

-10

-5

15

15

Repeat Exercises 8.8, 8.9, 8.10 and 8.11 using the above error fuzzy set.
15.Change the universe of discourse for the open control action fuzzy set in
the Rule-Activation worksheet of the Excel simulation into the following
values
Control
Action

(close)

Control
Action

(open)

-25

-20

25

20

100

100

Repeat Exercises 8.8, 8.9, 8.10 and 8.11 using the above control
action fuzzy set.
16.Change the universe of discourse for the close control action fuzzy set in
the Rule-Activation worksheet of the Excel simulation to the following
values
Control
Action

(close)

Control
Action

(open)

-25

-10

50

10

100

100

Repeat Exercises 8.8, 8.9, 8.10 and 8.11 using the above control
action fuzzy set.
17.In this exercise, the user will add a new outflow pattern in
the Measurement-Deviation worksheet of the Excel simulation. The user
should add a sawtooth outflow, which is defined as follows:

Outflow = 0
=

for t < 20
for 20 min

=0

t 100 min

for t > 100 min

Give the inflow, outflow, water volume and error at time = 75 min.

This page was last updated on 08/20/2004