SYNCHRONOUS GENERATOR TERMINAL VOLTAGE REGULATION UNDER DYNAMIC LOAD CONDITIONS USING MODEL-FREE ADAPTIVE CONTROL AND H-INFINITY CONTROLLER

This study compares the performance of the model-free adaptive control (MFAC) and H-infinity control strategies for terminal voltage control of synchronous generators under dynamic load conditions. The AVR system, incorporating a lead-lag compensator as a stabilizer, was tested under no-load, 20%, 50%, and 80% load scenarios using MATLAB/Simulink simulations. The results demonstrate that MFAC offers faster response times (0.36 s rise time at no-load) compared to the H-infinity controller (1.56 s) and exhibits significantly higher overshoot (40.14%) compared to the H-infinity controller (17.15%). The H-infinity controller provides superior stability with minimal overshoot and robust performance across all load conditions. Therefore, the H-infinity controller emerges as the optimal solution for power systems requiring precise voltage regulation under varying loads, particularly in unstable grids such as Nigeria’s.