K Sreerama Murthy Former Member & Actg. Chairman A.P.Electricity Regulatory Commission Emerging Trends Thermal Power Stations Due to availability of coal world over, lions share of power generation still is carried out in the coal fired thermal power stations (TPS). However, in view of the environmental pollution in TPS and stringent provision of the clean air and Water Acts of different countries, the cost of generation is ever increasing in these stations.
Many countries are focusing their attention on nuclear fuels and other sources of energy.
France derives more than 70% of their power requirement from nuclear stations followed by Japan which is about 50%.
Nordic countries like Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland etc. heavily lean on Hydro Power.
Emerging Trends Thermal Power Stations Those who have natural gas resources have switched to gas fired combined cycle power plants. Those who do not have such resource are importing Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) since it is comparatively non-polluting and also cycle (conversion) efficiency is very high.
In view finite availability of fossil fuels which may last only for few decades, every one is frantically trying to develop renewable resources of energy. Emerging Trends Thermal Power Stations In TPS, as most of us are aware, conversion of energy takes place from one form to another, finally electrical energy as it is the most usable form.
Chemical energy in the fuel is converted into heat energy which is packed into steam in steam generator and then made to flow through the turbine.
Heat energy is converted to mechanical energy by way of rotation of the shaft which is connected to the rotor of the alternator.
Mechanical energy is converted into electrical energy passed on to step-up transformer. Electricity at high voltage is transmitted to load centres & consumers through busbars , transmission network & distribution network. Emerging Trends Thermal Power Stations Equipment employed in TPS
As the process of conversion of energy is quite complex the equipment in TPS are vast marking them capital intensive.
Emerging Trends Thermal Power Stations TURBINE & AUXILIARIES
1. H.P. Turbine, I.P. & L.P. Turbines a) Nozzles & stationery diaphragms b) Rotating blades & discs c) Shaft seals & couplings d) Journal & Thrust bearings e) Oil pumps f) Governing & Protection devices g) Condenser 2. Condensate system a) C.E.P. b) Ejectors c) L.P. Heaters & Dearator 3. Feed water system a) Boilder Feed Pumps b) H.P. Heaters c) Feed Regulators
Emerging Trends Thermal Power Stations COMPONENTS OF COAL HANDLING PLANT
1. Track Hopper/Tippler Hopper (Wagon Tiuppler or MGR) 2. Vibratory Feeder 3. Belt Conveyor System 4. Magnetic Separator 5. Crusher and Screen 6. Stacker reclaimer 7. Reclaiming Hopper 8. Mobile Coal Plant Bull Dozers, Front End Loaders 9. Boiler Bunkers 10. Trippers 11. Safety Devices a) Pull chord over entire length of the conveyor both sides b) Belt sway switch c) Slow speed switch 12. Central Control Room
Emerging Trends Thermal Power Stations - This layout was causing the pulverised coal (PC) leaked from the mills & coal pipes to enter into turbine hall and affecting the rotating equipment and instrument panels. This increase the maintenance attention and unscheduled break-down
_ This problem was solved by rotating the equipment inside the dotted line by 180 degrees. Coal bunkers, mills & P.C. pipes were taken away from the turbine house. From double pass to single pass To decrease the velocity of the flue gas by reducing the number of changes of direction in the flue gas path.
This avoids erosion and also facilitates separation of clinker erosion from gas to avoid blockage of horizontal elements. Emerging Trends Thermal Power Stations Boiler Water Circulation _ In low pressure boilers natural circulation is adopted taking advantage of the density difference between the saturated water and saturated steam.
_ Assisted on controlled circulation for high but sub-critical pressure boilers taking advantage of the marginal difference in the density using circulating water pumps.
_ Forced circulation for super critical pressure boilers as there is no density difference between water & steam
Coal Mills Slow speed tube mills to avoid pyrites removal.
Medium speed bowl / ball mills and also blocking air passages.
Grinding loading from springs to gas to hydraulic with accumulators for uniform grinding over time.
High speed hammer / shear ring mills
Burners Front wall, corner, down shot igniters - P.C. Fuel rich burners.
Water wall construction 1. Tangent tube 2. Membrane Wall
Precipitators 1. Electro-static precipitators 2. Bag filters / fabric filters Variable speed I.D. Fans : These will reduce the consumption of power and also the wear and tear of the impeller Boiler Structure Instead of steel columns, concrete pylons are used to save steel. Also multipurpose pylons which double upon shafts for lifts & stair cases, cable ways and trenches.
Two stage attemperation: for improved temperation control and also avoid overheating of S.H. elements. Turbines 1. Governing System a. Throttle Governing : simple for base load
b. Nozzle Governing : Complicated but reduces throttling losses
2. Turbine Cylinder Arrangement a. Cross compounding to reduce the size of alternator with more than one alternator taking advantage of multiple shafts.
b. Tandom Compounding facilitates use of one alternator
3. Multiple cylinders and multiple exhaust.
4. Double casing and barrel cylinder without flanges.
5. Reversal of C.W. & on line clearing system for condenser.
6. Turbine driven B.F.P. as cogeneration and improves efficiency. Alternators 1. Excitation a. Static excitation b. Brushless excitation
2. Cooling a. Air cooling b. H2 cooling c. H2 &D .M. water cooling d. D.M water cooling Advancement in Control and Instrumentation There has been large scale advancement in C&I of TPS than in any other systems
1. Penumatic controllers and relay based protection interlocks.
2. In 1970s, solid state electronic controls. Their performance improved with ICs.
3. Microprocessor based controllers. PICs were introduced for binary controls. 4. There after powerful micro processors came into perform floating point operations, thereby bringing in floating point operations programmal controllers for analog controls.
5. Data Acquisition System (DAS) paved their way to power plant monitoring.
6. Advancement in computers and data communications led to development of present generation of controls i.e. Distributed Digital Control Monitoring & Information Systems (DDCMIS) 7. Human M/c Interface (HMI) From consumption panel operations to CRT Based operations.
8.Performance Analysis Diagnosis & Optimisation System (PADO) a. Artificial neural networks b. Fuzzy logic control (FLC) c. Expert Systems