To improve the boiler drum level control system of a power plant, the three challenging issues encountered include (1)

effect of ‘‘false water level’’, (2) controller parameter mismatches due to variant working conditions and (3) signal noise

caused by uncertainties of drum level. In this paper, based on analyses of the drum level signal, an adaptive derivative

action is presented to monitor steam flow, and thus, the effect of ‘‘false water level’’ is weakened. The uncertainties of

parameter mismatches and noise are predicted by developing a Grey predictor based algorithm (GPBA). In order to

resolve the three problems and further control performance, an adaptive technique is combined with the GPBA to develop

an adaptive Grey predictor based method. Finally, concrete simulations give that the proposed method has obvious superiority

over conventional methods.