Power plant effi ciency improvement by optimizing main infl uential control parameters

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Published: Dec 31, 2015
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Power plant efficiency optimization control parameters numerical analysis

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Polachate Tosomboon
Building Energy Systems Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Technology, Silpakorn University, Nakhon Pathom 73000, Thailand.
Thosapon Katejanekarn
Building Energy Systems Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Technology, Silpakorn University, Nakhon Pathom 73000, Thailand.

Abstract

This study was an attempt to increase power plant effi ciency by adjusting the process control parameters that resulted from a numerical analysis of the power plant effi ciency and its relevant operating parameters. The optimum values for the four main control parameters that would make the power plant run at the maximum effi ciency were evaluated for two regular load levels of 245 and 300 MW. The optimum values from the model were validated against the plant simulator due to the fact that it was too risky to adjust the real power plant. The results showed that if the plant was operated at the optimum combinations of the main control parameters, the effi ciency of the plant at the load levels of 245 and 300 MW would be 0.3859 and 0.3935, respectively. From the operating data during the last two years, the plant effi ciency at these two load levels would be improved by 0.0178 and 0.0149, which is equivalent to natural gas cost savings of 752,704 Baht/day (about 22,138 US$/day) and 609,862 Baht/day (about 17,937 US$/day), respectively.

Article Details

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Vol. 1 No. 2 (2015): JULY - DECEMBER
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Articles
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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