A Practical Approach to Tune Speed PID Controller in a Teaching Bench for Electrical Engineering Courses

This work deals with an educational procedure to tune a speed control in a synchronous machine. The generator is coupled with a DC machine providing mechanical torque to the system. The system is assembled to enable isolated and synchronized operation with the electrical power system. The speed transfer function is obtained with an experimental test applying a velocity step in the primary machine. The parameters values of the controller were determined simulating the modeled system by Ziegler-Nichols method. The results with the implemented digital controller in a microcontroller are shown varying the load in the generator. Comparisons with the modeled system are also performed in order to validate the approach. The system is implemented with a PIC16F877A microcontroller and industrial drive for the DC machine power feed.