Copyright © IFAC Control of Power Plants and Power Systems,

Cancun, Mexico, 1995

A KNOWLEDGE BASED OPERATOR SUPPORT/CONTROL SYSTEM

(KBOSS) FOR COAL MILLS USED IN POWER PLANTS

G.Q. Fan and N.W. Rees

The University of New South Wales. School of Electrical Engineering. Department of

Systems and Control. Sydney 2052 NSW Australia. Facsimile: +61 (2) 3855993.
Email.· neviller@syscon.ee.edu.au

Abstract: In this paper, we describe the development of a knowledge based mill operator
support/control system for coal pulverising mills. The work described is being performed as
part of a research project. The target of the project is to develop a knowledge based expert
mill operator support/control system (KBOSS) which is not only able to on-line monitor the
process and provide the operator with the necessary information and advise for mill control.
but is also able to directly intervene in the mill control thus running the mill and the overall
power generation plant more efficiently and economically.

Keywords: Power generation; power station control; expert systems; knowledge based systems.

such as low unit LFC (Load Following

1. INTRODUCTION
The function of mills in power generation is to
grind the large raw coal feed to supply dry and
finely pulverised coal to the furnace for fast
energy release. In addition to the precise fuel
supply, the mill control system has to control
primary air flow in a certain ratio to the PF flow
thereby maintaining the efficiency of unit energy
release and absorption and reducing environment
emissions. As pointed out, the mill is a highly
nonIinear multi variable system with a lot of
uncertainties (Fan, 1994). It is very difficult to
design a control algorithm which will be valid
over a wide operating range. At present, many
practical mill control problems, like the accurate
measurement of mill PF flow, fuel CV (Calorific
Value) and recirculating load, the detection of
mill choking and coal caking on the grinding
table, the determination of the degree of mill
roller wear. etc., are difficult to measure and
therefore to control effectively. Because of this
difficulty, the control of mills in most power
plants remains very simple (ICAL, 1989) and
presents many problems to the unit operation,
Capability), atmospheric emission, poor mill
performance, high fuel consumption and
operation cost. The above mill control problems
are not only caused by unmeasured PF and fuel
CV, but are also due to unmeasured mill internal
states, like mill coal blockage, the variation of
mill recirculating load, roller wear and mill
moisture (Lausterer, 1993). Any of the above
variations will affect mill performance. However,
these variations are reflected by mill drum
pressure, mill temperature, mill power
consumption, mill air flow, mill vibrations and
air/fuel ratio, therefore it should be possible to
find a way to derived these unmeasured variables
online.
In normal situations, the eXIstmg mill control
system (mass/mass mill control (ICAL, 1989)
can handle many of these problems, but when
something unexpected happens, the system does
not always give the operator sufficient support to
make a decision. This is especially true for
infrequently occurring events that the operator
might not have met for some time. An
experienced operator can judge whether the
changes are normal or abnormal by monitoring

129
instruments on wall panels and on the console
desk and analysing the symptoms using his
experience. But sometimes it is difficult for the
operator to synthesize the infonnation displayed
and make the right decision before an alann goes
off because most of the large units are now
installed with 6-10 mills and there are many
instruments associated with each mill. Thus
operators may miss the potential risky situation
from the very early part of change in mill
perfonnance. The complexity of operational
problems suggests that the use of modelling and
knowledge based expert operator support/ mill
control systems might be very useful.
One of the most important characteristics of an
expert system is that it can integrate and use
expert knowledge to design a system which is
capable of acting like an expert. Because of the
rapid development of computer hardware and
software, a properly designed micro computer
based expert system can respond to the system
changes in a very short time, thus avoiding many
control problems. Some expert systems have
been developed for power generation plants
monitoring and control. (Lautala et aI., 1991),
(Maffezzoni, 1986), (Majanne et aI., 1991), but
an expert system for mill control is still not
available indicating the difficulty in mill
modelling and control.
Modern DCS technology allows the use of
advanced control systems theory to control a
process to achieve a high perfonnance and thus
to meet the increasing requirement with respect
to economical, reliable and safe operation. The
work described in this paper is aimed at
developing a knowledge based expert mill
operator support/control system (KBOSS) that
can be used with existing control systems to
improve performance.
The remaining sections of this paper are
organised into Section 2 mill operation and
control; Section 3 KBOSS system architecture;
Section 4 simulation results, and Section 5
conclusions.
2. MILL OPERA nON AND CONTROL
The mill studied was a vertical spindle roll mill
(CE-RP1003) used in a 660 MW unit, Unit 6 of
Vales Point Power Station, New South Wales.
The mill has a capacity of supplying 60,000 kg
PF per hour (120 MW). The mill is fed with raw
coal in the size range from very fine particles to
coarse (::::: 75mm). The raw coal is pulverised
and dried in the mill prior to combustion. The
130
condition imposed on the mill is to continuously
supply finely pulverised dried coal, in which
75% can pass through a 75 micron sieve, to the
furnace . Since the mill level and recirculating
load are not measurable, mill dP measurement is
used to monitor mill operation states. The mill
is a sealed pressure vessel. For safe operation,
the mill dP (mill bowl pressure) has to be kept
within a certain range. This is realised by the
unit FSSS (Furnace Safeguard Supervision
System). Once the mill dP exceeds the maximum
allowed valued, the raw coal feeder is driven to
the minimum speed instantly. The mill primary
air, at the same time, will be run back to its
rrurumum value because it is controlled
depending on the raw coal supply. This prevents
the mill being overloaded.
During nonnal operation conditions, mill dP is
below the run back pressure and the simple
mass/mass mill controller can handle the control
well. But when something, like roller wear, coal
grindability and moisture content variation, mill
blockage, etc., happens, the coal grinding
dynamics will be altered. This changes the coal
grinding residence time. The mill may then be
driven beyond its capability. Thus mill dP rises
and the load increases and continues to rise
simply because the mill is demanded to do more
than it is currently capable of doing. At the same
time, mill PF does not equal the raw coal input.
The deviation between coal input/output will be
added to the mill recirculating load. This yields
an extremely high mill level which is indicated
by mill dP. Once it exceeds the maximum
allowed value, the mill runback controller will
run the feeder back to the minimum speed
automatically. The accumulated coal begins to
purge out of the mill and causes the remnant
surplus recirculating load to purge from the mill
with a surge. The surge of recirculating load
from the mill in response to the feeder runback
can equal up to 200% boiler MCR firing rate for
a period lasting minutes. Thus under these
extreme conditions, which is not rare (Fan and
Rees, 1994), the mill runback will cause total
control instability. As the mill runback
controller has no intelligence - simply using a
fixed set point to control feeder speed, it cannot
react to those changes properly.
Analysis results show that there are many factors
which cause mill dP variation. Some time it is
necessary to run the mill back for safety, but
most of time it is not. Adequate understanding
the inter-relationship between these variables and
the coal pulverising process will certainly reduce
the mill runback. A intelligent know-how expert
system can handle very complex situations like
this much better than conventional control
systems ..
3. KBOSS SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
The KBOSS system under development is a
micro-computer and screen based system using
Bailey INFI-90 hardware and software. The
system consists of input/output, man/machine
interfaces, AID and D/A devices, a mathematical
mill model developed in (O'Kelly, 1992), an
expert knowledge data base and inference
machine. The system is being developed in two
parts. The first part is designed to provide the
following real time functions: data acquisition
and processing, on line parameter estimation and
mill performance prediction, fault diagnosis and
prognosis, incipient alanning and problem
analysis and optimal problem solving solutions.
The structure diagram of KBOSS is shown in
Fig. l .
During operation if anything becomes abnormal
such as, for instance, the error between the model
and the process exceeding a certain level,
KBOSS will analyse the cause and send out
different levels of alarm to the operator and
process engineer. It will also display analysis
results including possible causes for the problem
in priority order on the PC screen (operator
console) and suggest available methods and
procedures to get rid of the fault. In order to
make KBOSS work on line for all fault
conditions, the knowledge base must be very
large. The structure of the knowledge base is
multi-layered with a branch tree structure. For
EJ
Fig.] Structure of the KBOSS system
131
simple problems it is not necessary to process all
the knowledge so the data base is divided into
three levels A, Band C. For problems that can
be solved by a lower level knowledge (level A),
there is no need to process higher level Band C
knowledge and similarly for level B. Therefore
the efficiency of the system is improved and the
computing burden is reduced. It is scheduled
that after off line simulation and testing, the
system will be set up and used in a pilot study on
a power plant.
At the beginning of operation the knowledge
base may not be perfect but it can be gradually
modified online improving performance with
operation. The parameters for the knowledge
base can be changed easily and systematically to
suit the- change of mill operation status and
different types of mill. After online testing, the
system will be expanded to possess the control
function (part two) which enables the system to
directly intervene in the mill control.
4. SIMULATION RESULTS
The simulation of mill operation and the system
described above is based on the mill model
developed using the Easy5 Engineering Analysis
System. The model is a modified version of
(O'Kelly, 1992) which has a more accurate dP,
airflow and recirculating load function because
mill airflow is not only a function of air damper
position, but is also a function of mill aero-
resistance which varies with mill recirculating
load. Therefore from simulation results we can
see that airflow is not a constant when the control
demand is a constant.
To simulate mill coal moisture and grindability
variation, the mill model parameters are defined
as a function of time and raw coal. That is the
model parameters are not constant in the
simulation. It was assumed that for some reasons
the property of coal used was changed. This
results in the change of coal moisture and
grindability. It is assumed that the change is
made from 2000 to 3000 seconds and then
remains constant at the new value in the
simulation. The coal moisture content was
increased by 10% and grindability was decreased
20% respectively. These changes cause a longer
coal grinding residence time, higher power
consumption, high mill level and recirculating
load and high mill dP. The use of very wet coal
causes the mill blockage and high bowl pressure.
The normal mill dP range for CE-RP1003
vertical spindle mills is between 3 - 4.5 kPa
 in Fig.2 (solid) from which it can be seen that

f~iEj·m- '
o 100 lOO 300 _
. .m
.mm·l
SOO 600
once the mill dP exceeds the limit, the mill is
runback to the minimum instantly. The dashed
curves in Fig.2 are the simulation results of mill
controlled by the system without the mill
runback function.
(a)

Mill Runback

t~pgmmmml When very wet coal is used, the moisture content

of the PF will be higher than normal. This is
because there is a high temperature limit set for
"0 100 lOO 300 400 SOO 600
mill input primary air flow to ensure safe mill
(b) operation (avoid igniting PF). This limits the
mill drying ability when very wet coal is used.
High moisture PF has a potential risk to cause
mill blockage (fine coal powder accumulated in

f :~E3m--mml
PF transportation pipes). The mill blockage
reduces the cross section area of the PF
transportation pipe. From the mass balance and
aero-dynamics, it can be seen that the reduction
o ~ lOO 300 _ SOO 600 of cross section area results in a higher velocity
(c)
air flow and larger pressure drop. That is the
high dP is not caused by high mill load. Using
this knowledge should allow us to avoid mill run

!~E3mmmj
o 100 lOO 300
back in these circumstances.

Thus whether a mill needs to run back or not

should depend on the following factors: mill dP,
mill level, mill power, mill load and mill
600
(d)
conditions. The expert system described here is
designed based on the mill operation experience.
SOO Simulation results of the mill controlled by the

J~b=-3-----m--ml
system developed are shown in Fig.3 which is
overplotted with simulation results of the mill
controlled by the existing mass/mass mill control
system. From Fig.3 we can see that the expert
o ~ lOO ~ _ SOO 600
(e)
system has intelligence to avoid mill dP rising
close to the mill runback limit. At the same time
the system still keeps its mill coal drying and
transportation capabilities.

I~fs±i.r-m-l
~O~--~I~OO--~lOO~--~300~--~_~--~SOO~--~600
(1)_.10_

Fig.2 Mill runback due to high mill dP. time x 10 seconds

(So/id· mill with runback: Dashed· without runbacki

depending on mill load, mill condition and coal

iY-~-5mmml
used. As there is a minimum primary air flow
limit, mill dP actually never drops below 3 kPa.
The main concern on the mill safe operation is on
the high mill dP. In the simulation, we assumed
o lOO 300 _ soo 600
that the maximum allowed mill dP was 4.5 kPa. ~

(b)
The simulation results of mill runback is shown

132
~l :~
~
~ ---'. ---~- --~-- - - .::~~ --. ;-·,·- --- -1
2 . ..... - . ... -
I - - . -.. --.-, . -.. - -
- .- ....... - ... .
- .. --......--- - .- - - - ..-

°0~---:1;:;00;---=200;:----;:lOO::---;...,:::-----:500=----::6OO
(c)
. "-- --- ,-- -
-- -.- -.---
0..

~
HFfjfjjl~ ~ 200 lOO
(1))
..., 500 600

500

I~~?~=== .· ~ !:~~ -1
l
c
t'
10

. -
~ - ,.. -

00 100 lOO ]00 00 100 200 lOO 400

(d) (c)

...so

! :l~
~
o ~
.
· . ::-.,>. '"·~· ~'~··~. .::··:·-:,;···-········1
E 100 ' '

lOO
. '.'_
;

.
]00
(c) __ a:l01llCOlMll
_
.• . ,' "
:

.
500 600
!j~··l o ~ 200 ]00
(d)
..., 500 600

Fig.3 Simulation r~sults of mill controlled by expert syst~m .

time x 10 seconds (Solid· mill controlled by mass/mass
controller; Dashed· mill controlled by KBOSS)
r~ :~
-- -J..,/.. \.-.=--=>.<"
]00 . ......... . . -.:.'. -...... ... : -
. l.: .•••..- -••. -.,-_
•.... ••••••: - •• ..
ri ... . ....... . .. ..... . j
&. 200 · ' ... . . . . . ..• .. ,... . . - - ....... .. . .... ..
= ,: :
E 100 . . : . - . . ..

~ ~ 200 ]00 400 500 600

Optimal Mill Control (c)

Mills consume large amounts of power. Besides

i:r~, i
coal drying and transportation, coal grinding
itself consumes about 0.5% of power generated.
The coal grinding process can be optimised to
achieve a more efficient and economic operation.
This can be realised using a knowledge based
~3~t~:
]000 100 200
(1)_.10_
]00 400 500
_
1
600

intelligent controller. Investigation results have

shown that there is a best coal depth for the most Fig.4 Simulation results of optimised grinding control. time x
efficient coal grinding (Fan and Rees, 1994). If 10 seconds (Solid· mill controlled by mass/mass controller;
the coal depth is kept on/near this depth, coal DasMd· mill controlled by KBOSS)
size reduction is most effective thus optimising
coal grinding. The amount of coal on the the grinding table) is in the range between 350 -
grinding table is a function of mill power 4OOkW. The intelligent controller is switched on
consumption, under the condition that coal after 1000 seconds of mill start up. The
grindability does not change abruptly. If the mill simulation results of the mill controlled by a such
power is controlled in such way that the level is knowledge based controller are shown in Fig.4.
kept in a certain range, then coal grinding will be
much more efficient. In the simulation, we Fig.4 (a) is a mill coal grinding parameter which
assume that the optimal coal grinding level is is a function of mill table rotating velocity and
when the mill power (function of coal depth on the mill roller specific pressure (O'Kelly, 1992).
In the existing mill control system, it is load

I~E------.J
independent. In our expert control system, we

··
defined it as a function of mill load and mill
level so that coal grinding can be optimised.
..: ; .j From Fig.4 (e) we can see that when the mill is
controlled by the expert system, the mill power is
basically in the range we expected compared
] .10 \00 200 ]00 ..., 500 400
(a)

133
with the existing system which is very much mill 5. CONCLUSIONS
load dependent.
Knowledge based systems can provide many
Optimal mill control has two aspects: efficient functions which are beyond the capability of
coal grinding and fast fuel response. To achieve classical controllers. The core part of the
an optimal coal grinding, it is sometimes development of a knowledge based system is to
necessary to accept slow fuel response as a integrate the adequate knowledge and fully
penalty. Process engineers need to weigh understand the process to be controlled.
tradeoffs between the factors like operation Simulation results presented in this paper show
economy and the fast unit LFC. For example, if that the KBOSS system can not only reduce mill
the unit LFC is more important than operation runback, but can also improve mill grinding
economy during load changes, then we can efficiency and unit LFC. The mill controlled by
design the KBOSS in such a way that during load a such system can be operated more efficiently
changes, the fast fuel response is optimised. At thus improving overall power generation plant
constant load, coal grinding is optimised performance. KBOSS is actually an add on
therefore achieving overall mill control system to the existing mass/mass mill controller
optimisation. The simulation results of fast unit so that it is easy to be tested and implemented on
LFC mill control optimisation is shown in Fig.5 a real industrial plant without too much risk of
compared with normal mill control. Fig.S (b) disturbing the system in operation.
clearly shows the fast PF response compared
with the normal mill control when the mill
controlled by the expert system. ACKNOWLEDGMENT

t~FtfPj~o"':' l
The authors wish to acknowledge the financial
support provided by the AESIRB (Australia
Electricity Supply Industry Research Board) and
Pacific Power.
o ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

(.)

!~FE2i n . ·- l
REFERENCES:

Fan, G.Q. and Rees, N.W. (1994) "Control of

Vertical Spindle Mills in Coal Fired Power
\ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Plants", ICPST94', Beijing. PRC, 18-21,Oct.
(b)
Fan, G.Q.{l994) "Modelling and Control of
s
Vertical Spindle Coal Mills in Power Plants",

~ ""-. j
~ ' , . o· ••••. 0 • •• •
ME thesis, UNSW, Australia.
~ ) • • n om • • o • • • ,:--.~ ~.~:~. ~.
•• _ _ n" m • ••• m • • , . .. . • _ .
ICAL (1989) General Principals of Coal
t 2 · · .. . . . . . Milling. ICAL Limited, Vot.
·e I · · ... , .. ... . . ... . . . . . .
Lausterer, G.K. . (1993)" Knowledge-Based
·0

\~--~IOO~--~~~--~~~---~~--~~~--~~
(c)
Monitoring Of Coal-Fired Power Plant", 12th
World Congress of IFAC, Sydney.

~ :~_o ~ o·io~.: ...-.~. ~•.~. ".:~.:::.:. .:. ~.. . -1

00
Lautala. L. , Antila, H. and Vikko, M. (1991). "A
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l Dl (~ .. n~~~~~ • o. 0 ~~n.. . : 0 • _

System For A Peat Power Plant", IFAC Fault

.. 100 • -- 0. 0_· . . .. . . 0 '" o .

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o )
o ~ Dl Dl G ~ ~ Technical Process. Baden-Baden, German)"
(If)
Maffezzoni, C.( 1986). "Concepts, Practice and
4:SO~
Trends In Fossil Power Plant Control", IFAC
J~~\ .~~.- j Symposium On Power Plant and Power

.. ~~
~O~--~IOO=---~Dl~--~~~--~@~--~~~--~~
] Systems, Beijing, PRC.
Majanne, Y., Ruokonen , T., Kurki, M. and Ala-
Siuru, P.(1991) "Hierarchical On-Line
(e) .-ex 10 . . . .
Diagnosis System For Power Plants", IFAC
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Technical Process. Baden-Baden. german)"
Fig.5 Simulation results of optimised unit LFC mill control.
O'Kelly, P.A.(1992) "Optimised Control of a
time x 10 seconds (Solid· mill controlled KBOSS; Dashed·
Coal Pulverising Mill", Technical Report,
mill controlled by mass/mass controller)
Costec Co., private communications, 1992.

134