Development and experimental performance of micro-CSP heliostat controllers under IEC 62817 criteria

Control strategies in CSP plants mitigate the effects of solar variability, optimize resource use, and reduce CO2 emissions. However, most studies address solar movement tracking using advanced controllers and rely on dynamic simulation models that, while useful for exploring certain scenarios, often idealize operating conditions and oversimplify the effects of external loads. This work presents the implementation of a micro-CSP system with three heliostats developed for this study, which serves as an experimental platform to contribute to the validation of the performance of three control strategies: proportional-integral—derivative (PID), fuzzy logic (FLC), and perturb/observe angular tracking (P&O-AT), considering metrics such as energy consumption, accuracy, and thermal performance. The performance evaluation of the controllers under certain external load conditions specified in IEC 62817 for CSP systems reveals significant differences in their operability. The PID controller demonstrated superior efficiency in balancing energy consumption, accuracy, and thermal performance. On the other hand, the FLC stood out for its response speed, achieving a shorter settling time against disturbances, albeit at the cost of a higher computational load. In contrast, the P&O-AT algorithm exhibited the lowest CPU usage but lower focal accuracy and longer response times to the target point.