Performance Improvement Through Energy Audit of A 250MW Coal Fired Thermal Power Plant-Ijaerdv04i0477633 PDF
Performance Improvement Through Energy Audit of A 250MW Coal Fired Thermal Power Plant-Ijaerdv04i0477633 PDF
Abstract In this paper, performance of a 250MW coal fired thermal power plant has been investigated through the
energy audit of all its important components at various loads. Energy efficiency of boiler, turbine-generator and
condenser section as well as the overall plant is evaluated for 250MW, 200MW and 125MW loads. Similarly
effectiveness of feed water heaters is evaluated for all the three loads.
It is observed that the performance of all the sections except boiler is decreasing when the plant load decreases
from its rated value. A similar trend is observed regarding overall plant as efficiency decreases from 38.5% to 34.63%
when the load is reduced to half i.e. from 250MW to 125MW. From percentage loss point of view the area of major
concerns are turbine-generator section and condenser section. Boiler efficiency seems to be satisfactory but it is still
lower than the design value. This signifies that boiler have further scope of improvement.
Keywords - Energy audit, Thermal power plant, Plant performance, Efficiency, Energy loss.
I. INTRODUCTION
Energy is among the top three expenses in any industry other two being labour and materials. If cost
management is related then energy would be in top rank and a key step towards energy management is to conduct energy
audit of the system, process or plant. Energy audit is the technique to know the fraction of total input energy being used
for the intended purpose as well as the losses through various means. Thus energy audit is of utmost importance for cost
reduction as it helps to understand the ways of energy use and in identifying the areas where waste can occur and scope
for improvement exists [1].
Fast growing economy and increasing population are some of the major contributing factors behind enhanced
energy demand in India. One of the basic source of energy for industrial and power sector in India is coal, as its
consumption has raised at the compound annual growth rate of 6.69% from 433.27MT in 2005-06 to 827.57MT during
2014-15. Biggest consumer of coal is the electricity generation sector, followed by steel industries [2]. This increasing
demand on one side and legislation in form of Energy Conservation Act 2001[3] on the other, has made it mandatory for
the industries to consume energy at prescribed efficiency levels or even better. The act has prescribed the standards and
directs the consumers on ways and means of efficient utilization of energy with a view to improve productivity, enhance
operating efficiency, reduce operating costs and minimize pollution. Parameter of the power plants which comes under
the ambit of the act are unit heat rate, auxiliary power, specific oil consumption and plant load factor.
Many authors have used the energy audit technique for performance analysis of the respective plants considered
under their study. Talwar P. et al. [4] conducted energy audit for boiler of a coal based thermal power plant and found the
boiler efficiency as 81.07%. They concluded that except the heat loss due to fly ash and bottom ash all other losses were
within the design values. M. Bajwa and P. Gulati [5], Bhardwaj V. et al. [6] and N. Kaur and N. K. Brar [7] uses energy
audit technique to compare the performance of thermal power plant components at various loads and recommends few
measures for improvement. A. K. Namdev et al. [8] in an energy audit of a boiler and waste heat recovery system in
thermal power plant determines losses in the boiler and effectiveness of air preheater and concluded that the total unburnt
carbon loss was 6.14% and dry gas loss was 4.59%. To reduce above losses they suggested to maintain coal particle size
in the range of 70 to 74 micron and controlling excess air supply.
P. Sindhu and S. Arya [9] carry out the energy audit of a thermal power plant at the operating load of 232 MW
and found the overall efficiency of the plant as 35.89% and suggested the plant operation at higher loads. V. Duhan and
J. Singh [10] in the energy audit of Rajiv Gandhi thermal power plant at Hisar studied the dynamic responses of power
plants through mathematical modeling and simulation by developing a model using genetic algorithms for parameter
identification and model response optimization. Study also conducted the energy audit of the 600MW unit at various
loads by taking data from the control room. Several authors [11–15] analyses the performances of different thermal
power plants through energy audit and suggested some potential saving measures.
U. Ahmed and J. A. Chattha [16] in a case study evaluated the performance of combined cycle power plant and
identified the areas requiring improvement. G. T. Dhanre et al. [17] in a review paper on energy audit of the boiler of
thermal power plants summarizes the various studies carried out by different authors and concluded that energy audit
evolves many ways to reduce energy consumption and energy cost.
For present analysis 250MW thermal power plant located in Chhattisgarh, India is considered and its flow
layout is shown in the Figure 1. Recorded operating parameters of the plant at different points are given in Table 1 to 3.
Following methodology of data analysis and determination of efficiencies and effectiveness of different units
and overall plant is used in this present paper.
(i) Boiler section
Input energy to the boiler = Fuel energy = Mass flow rate of the fuel × gross calorific value of the fuel
= mf G. C. V. = m5 h5 = E5 (1)
Net energy output from the boiler = (Energy of superheated steam Energy of feed water)
(Energy of hot reheat steam Energy of cold reheat steam)
= (Energy at 2 Energy at 1) (Energy at 4 Energy at 3’)
= (m2h2 m1h1) (m4h4 m3, h3,) = (E2 E1) (E4 E3’) (2)
Where m, h and E are mass flow rate, specific enthalpy and total energy at corresponding points.
Net energy output from the boiler
Efficiency of the boiler, ηb = Input energy to the boiler
× 100% (3)
Where Twi and Two are the temperature of feed water entering to and leaving from the feed water heater respectively and
Ts is the temperature of the steam entering to the feed water heater.
(v) Overall plant efficiency
Output of the plant
Overall plant efficiency, ηplant = × 100%
Mass flow rate of the fuel gross calorific value of the fuel
Load
= × 100% (11)
m f × G.C.V.
Using recorded data and following the method of analysis as stated above, performance at section wise as well
as for whole plant at 250MW, 200MW and 125MW load is determined. The results obtained are presented both in
tabular (Table 4) and graphical forms (Figure 2 to 4) for ease of comparison and better understanding.
All the components are performing better at higher load (except boiler). As shown in Figure 2, when load
decreases to 50% of rated value, turbine-generator efficiency reduced considerably over 2.5% and condenser efficiency
reduces more than 10%. Effectiveness of feed water heaters are shown separately in Figure 3. Effectiveness in general is
also reducing with decrease in load. Overall plant efficiency as shown in Figure 4 also reduces by almost 4% with the
load being half of the rated value.
Table 4. Results of the analyzed data
Load
Section/Components Description
250MW 200MW 125MW
Energy input to boiler, kW 649290.00 532818.00 361008.00
Net energy output from boiler, kW 562836.12 462635.78 312714.40
Boiler
Energy loss in boiler, kW 86453.88 70182.22 48293.60
Efficiency of boiler, % 86.68 86.83 86.62
Net Energy at HPT 69181.46 56512.75 36932.81
Net Energy at IPT 82141.45 68783.94 26549.77
Turbine-generator Net Energy at LPT 441690.73 364913.97 254007.57
Net Input at Turbines 593013.64 490210.66 317490.15
Efficiency of Turbine-generator, % 42.16 40.80 39.37
Condenser Condenser efficiency,% 62.94 59.93 49.39
Effectiveness of LPH1 0.82 0.84 0.82
Effectiveness of LPH2 0.61 0.45 0.34
Feed Water Heaters Effectiveness of LPH3 0.28 0.27 0.21
Effectiveness of HPH5 0.14 0.13 0.11
Effectiveness of HPH6 0.38 0.31 0.31
Overall Plant Efficiency,% 38.50 37.54 34.63
100
250MW
90
200MW
80
125MW
70
Efficiency,%
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Boiler Turbine- Generator Condenser
0.90
250MW
0.80
200MW
0.70
125MW
0.60
Effectiveness
0.50
0.40
0.30
0.20
0.10
0.00
LPH1 LPH2 LPH3 HPH5 HPH6
39
38
Efficiency,%
37
36
35
34
33
32
250MW 200MW 125MW
V. RECOMMENDED MEASUSRES
Based on the observations and results of analyzed data, few measures have been recommended to improve the
performance of each section. These measures include both categories of recommendations viz. short term, requiring little
time and cost to be implemented, and long term, covering bigger activities therefore requires larger investment and
longer time to be implemented. Section wise improvement objectives and recommended measures are summarized in
Table 5.
Boiler Improving efficiency, *Reducing flue gas exhaust temperature to the minimum
reducing losses and curbing possible limit.
environmental pollution * Maintaining optimum quantity of excess air.
* Controlling dampers for proper combustion.
* Better control of furnace temperature to reduce spray.
* Improving coal quality to control moisture in the fuel.
* Avoid part load operation and shut down by regular periodic
maintenance
* Improving air preheater performance by controlling air
ingress across seals. Check air preheater baskets and replace if
necessary.
Condenser Maintaining low vacuum and * Avoiding air ingress to maintain low vacuum.
effective heat transfer * Cleaning tubes by high pressure jets and remove scale.
through tubes * Regular cleaning by online tube cleaning system.
* Attend tube leakages immediately as and when required.
* Ensure performance of each cooling tower.
* Ensure adequate flow of cooling water.
Heaters Maintaining desired terminal *Properly measure the temperatures using calibrated
temperatures instruments.
*Maintain recommended condensate levels in feed water
heaters. With this no heat transfer areas are immersed in the
drain condensate.
Overall plant Higher thermal efficiency *Overall plant efficiency is a function of efficiencies of boiler
and steam turbine both. In this case, improving boiler
efficiency can make a major contribution.
VI. CONCLUSION
From results of the analyzed data it may be concluded that for higher energy efficiency, plant should run at full
load. As the loss at boiler is the loss of energy of high quality, therefore boiler efficiency should be improved by adopting
the suggested measures and following the good maintenance practices. Efficiency of turbine-generator section and
condenser are also lower than their design values. Also the effectiveness of feed water heaters particularly 3 and 5
requires to be improved.
Total loss in the boiler is more than 13% in all the cases of loading which requires further detailed analysis to
identify the major sources of losses in the boiler and to investigate the parameters affecting these losses.
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