Design of automation control thermal system integrated with parabolic trough collector based solar plant

Abstract

This paper presents enhanced design for automation control of processes involved in a solar system which utilizes programmable logic controller to auto-mate tracking system for obtaining maximum solar radiation. Three areas are involved in this proposed multi area system where 1st and 2nd area considers solar power plant with thermal system based parabolic trough collector with fixed so-lar isolation and random isolation of solar energy whereas third area comprises of solar thermal system with dish Stirling realistic unit. Energy efficiency can be increased by using solar concentrator along with Stirling engine. Optimization of gain of the controller is by utilizing crow search novel algorithm. Crow search algorithm is an optimization technique, which provides better performance at complex time varying noisy condition and time in-varying noisy condition. The proposed controller is evaluated by obtaining the optimized parameters of the system whose comparison is done by operating proposed controller with and without renewable sources of energy thereby revealing better performance for both conditions. Testing is done in different areas with fixed solar isolation and random stisolation of solar energy involved in solar thermal power plant based on parabolic trough collector. Gain and parameters of the controller of the solar power plant are optimized by utilizing automation for operation of solar concentrator with parabolic trough collector. Data acquisition and monitoring is done by human machine interface in order to report safe operation. The simulation results of integrated solar thermal system involving dish Stirling with parabolic trough collector, shows that dynamic response of the proposed controller operating with renewable solar energy is better than that of non-renewable energy source.