In the paper, the procedure is given for designing speed and active power controller of hydro turbine units. The procedure is based on mathematical models of the controlled system. The controller parameters are obtained from closed-loop poles and hydro turbine parameters by derived analytical formulas over a wide range of the hydro turbine operating points. The described procedure allows the fast and direct determination of the controller parameters. There is no need for heuristic controller parameters tuning. Results from two hydro turbine units with the controllers designed using the described procedure are given as an illustration.