To the task of controlling a group of objects on the basis of information technologies

To participate the TPP with cross-section communications in the general primary frequency control, it is necessary to have a working main regulator. The main regulator is designed to maintain the steam pressure in the major steam line of the TPP at a given level, which is a difficult task. At the TPP with cross-connections, the steam produced by the boilers enters the major steam line. To maintain the pressure in the major steam line, it is necessary to control the heat load of the working boilers. Traditional solutions to construct the main regulator found no use, as have a number of disadvantages, not allowing exploiting a system of automatic control. Looking at the steam pressure control system in the major steam line from the bottom to up, it is possible to identify disadvantages that prevent the effective operation of the main regulator at each level. At the lower level of the main regulator, there are controllers of heat load of boilers, built according to the scheme task-heat. Heat load controllers are designed to maintain heat release in the boiler furnace at the required level. The heat signal is the sum of the signals for the steam flow of the boiler and the rate of change in the steam pressure in the boiler drum. Such a structure does not allow maintaining the invariance of the heat signal under external disturbances effectively, as sharp changes of the steam pressure in the major steam line lead to a "false" operation of the controllers. At the upper level there is the main regulator itself, which maintains the steam pressure in the major steam line at a given level and corrects the tasks to the controllers of the heat load of the boilers. The simultaneous identical effect on the heat load of the boilers cannot be optimal from the point of view of the criteria for assessing the quality of regulation, since the dynamic properties of the boilers, such as the gain, the transition time constant and the transport delay are individual for each boiler. However, in 2006–2008, the attempt to build an updated main regulator that takes into account the shortcomings of the traditional scheme was made. The basis of the structure of the main regulator is still parametric and, as a result of ten-years’ experience, shortcomings in the operation of the updated main regulator were identified. The shortcomings, in most cases, consist in need of frequent corrections of adjusting coefficients of system because of the change of dynamic properties of an object during the operation. In fact, the same problems related to the parametric structure of the regulator remain. Up-to-date information technologies made it possible to introduce adaptive process control systems that allow to count an extended number of signals entering the system and to form control actions, based on both current and historical data of the technological process. The use of the latest information technologies and modern hardware in the control of complex multi-connected units that solve not only the problems of process control, but also the problem of improving the economic and environmental performance of enterprises, should become a new step in the development of automatic control systems.