The 'steady state stability' of the French power transmission system has been greatly improved by supplying additional signals to the voltage regulator. The control system parameters, including the additional signals, have been chosen in order to cover all the possible operating conditions and network configurations. These additional signals lead to an increase in the 'steady state stability' domain even with a regulator having constant parameters. Better results have been obtained using the model reference adaptive control method with an adjustable regulator. A method based on the 'hyperstability' approach has been used for the design of the adaptive control system because of its efficiency. Moreover, the adaptive control of generator excitation, using voltage, speed and active power as input signals, reduces the oscillations of the H.P. turbine valves when the generator is affected by network perturbations. Therefore, the wear of the units, in particular of nuclear units, could be reduced. The principles of this new type regulator are discussed and experimental results are presented. © 1979.
