A Controller Synthesis Method to Achieve Independent Reference Tracking Performance and Disturbance Rejection Performance

[Image: see text] This paper deals with the conflict between the input–output response and the disturbance–output response, which cannot be completely eliminated by traditional and advanced control strategies without using the accurate process model. The inherently close association of these two responses and the unavailability of the accurate process model pose a great challenge to field test engineers of a coal-fired power plant, that is, the design requirements of reference tracking and disturbance rejection are compromised. In this paper, a novel two-degree-of-freedom controller—feedforward compensated (FC) desired dynamic equational (DDE) proportional–integral–derivative (PID) (FC-DDE PID)—is proposed as a viable alternative. In addition to achieving independent reference tracking performance and disturbance rejection performance, its simple structure and tuning procedure are specifically appealing to practitioners. Simulations, experiments, and field tests demonstrate the advantages of the proposed controller in both reference tracking and disturbance rejection, thus making FC-DDE PID a convenient and effective controller for the control of the coal-fired power plants, readily implementable on the distributed control system (DCS).