MPC for DEC Voltage and Grid Synchronization
The burner's direct energy conversion produces electrical output that must track collector potentials and synchronize to the grid; Kronos governs this with MPC.
Direct energy conversion as a control target
The tandem-mirror burner extracts power directly from the streaming end-loss plasma via a multi-modal DEC train, traveling-wave direct conversion (TWDEC), ultra-high-field MHD conversion, and thermionics. Each stage has electrode/collector potentials that set both its extraction efficiency and, for the end collectors, the ambipolar boundary condition on plasma confinement. Controlling these potentials is a Power-Systems MPC problem.
Two objectives, one actuator set
The DEC potentials must be set to convert the end-loss energy efficiently while presenting the right potential boundary for confinement, and the resulting electrical output must synchronize to grid phase and frequency for MetroVolt data-center supply or Aegis fixed-installation supply. MPC balances extraction against confinement against grid-sync, respecting the coupling that raising a collector potential to extract more power also perturbs the ambipolar potential the plug-density controller manages.
- Actuators: TWDEC/MHD/thermionic collector potentials, power-electronics setpoints
- Objectives: conversion efficiency, ambipolar boundary, grid phase/frequency lock
- Constraints: electrode limits, plasma-facing thermal limits, grid interconnect spec
- Coupling: shared state with plug-density MPC to avoid actuator conflict
Grid synchronization is a dispatch-and-timing function: MPC tracks the grid reference so the burner's output stays phase- and frequency-locked and ramps within interconnect limits. This is described purely operationally, when and how much power is delivered and how it is kept in sync, with no reference to any commercial or market signal, which belongs nowhere in the control stack.
As with all L3 controllers, DEC-voltage MPC operates inside a certified envelope and above the hardware protection layer; electrode faults and over-voltage conditions are guarded by deterministic interlocks independent of the optimizer.