Abstract
A governor control system for hydro power plant is newly developed. The main feature of the governor is to reduce water levelrising of the surge chambers even when load shedding or urgent start up occurs, and to improve load set point tracking ability. The governor controls the guide vane in such manners that it opens the guide vane when upper surge chamber water level rises so that the water level oscillation damps gradually. The control algorithm for the governor is designed applying LQG control method. Furthermore, the water level which is difficult to measure continuously is estimated by the software sensor by the pressure and power signal that are easier to measure. The system is examined by simulations firstly and proved its performances by the experimental setups.