Nantong Power Station, a coal-red

power station in Nantong, China.

Mohave Generating Station, a 1,580MW

thermal power station near Laughlin,
Nevada, USA, fuelled by coal.

Nuclear thermal power station in Bavaria,

Germany.

Geothermal power station in Iceland.

 Taichung Thermal Power Station, the
world's largest coal-red power station,
in Taichung, Taiwan.

A thermal power station is a power plant in which heat energy is converted to

electric power. In most of the places in the world the turbine is steam-driven.
Water is heated, turns into steam and spins a steam turbine which drives an
electrical generator. After it passes through the turbine, the steam is condensed in
a condenser and recycled to where it was heated; this is known as a Rankine cycle.
The greatest variation in the design of thermal power stations is due to the
dierent heat sources, fossil fuel dominates here, although nuclear heat energy
and solar heat energy are also used. Some prefer to use the term energy center
because such facilities convert forms of heat energy into electrical energy.[1]
Certain thermal power plants also are designed to produce heat energy for
industrial purposes of district heating, or desalination of water, in addition to
generating electrical power.

Types of thermal energy

Almost all coal, nuclear, geothermal, solar thermal electric, and waste incineration
plants, as well as many natural gas power plants are thermal. Natural gas is
frequently combusted in gas turbines as well as boilers. The waste heat from a gas
turbine, in the form of hot exhaust gas, can be used to raise steam, by passing this
gas through a Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) the steam is then used to
drive a steam turbine in a combined cycle plant that improves overall eciency.
Power plants burning coal, fuel oil, or natural gas are often called fossil-fuel power
plants. Some biomass-fueled thermal power plants have appeared also.
Non-nuclear thermal power plants, particularly fossil-fueled plants, which do not
use co-generation are sometimes referred to as conventional power plants.

Commercial electric utility power stations are usually constructed on a large scale
and designed for continuous operation. Virtually all Electric power plants use
three-phase electrical generators to produce alternating current (AC) electric
power at a frequency of 50Hz or 60 Hz. Large companies or institutions may have
their own power plants to supply heating or electricity to their facilities, especially
if steam is created anyway for other purposes. Steam-driven power plants have
been used to drive most ships in most of the 20th century until recently. Steam
power plants are now only used in large nuclear naval ships. Shipboard power
plants usually directly couple the turbine to the ship's propellers through
gearboxes. Power plants in such ships also provide steam to smaller turbines
driving electric generators to supply electricity. Nuclear marine propulsion is, with
few exceptions, used only in naval vessels. There have been many turbo-electric
ships in which a steam-driven turbine drives an electric generator which powers
an electric motor for propulsion.

Combined heat and power plants (CH&P plants), often called co-generation
plants, produce both electric power and heat for process heat or space heating.
Steam and hot water.

History

The initially developed reciprocating steam engine has been used to produce
mechanical power since the 18th Century, with notable improvements being made
by James Watt. When the rst commercially developed central electrical power
stations were established in 1882 at Pearl Street Station in New York and Holborn
Viaduct power station in London, reciprocating steam engines were used. The
development of the steam turbine in 1884 provided larger and more ecient
machine designs for central generating stations. By 1892 the turbine was
considered a better alternative to reciprocating engines; [2] turbines oered higher
speeds, more compact machinery, and stable speed regulation allowing for
parallel synchronous operation of generators on a common bus. After about 1905,
turbines entirely replaced reciprocating engines in large central power stations.

The largest reciprocating engine-generator sets ever built were completed in

1901 for the Manhattan Elevated Railway. Each of seventeen units weighed about
500 tons and was rated 6000 kilowatts; a contemporary turbine set of similar
rating would have weighed about 20% as much.[3]

Thermal power generation eciency

 A Rankine cycle with a two-stage steam turbine and a
single feed water heater.

The energy eciency of a conventional thermal power station, considered salable

energy produced as a percent of the heating value of the fuel consumed, is
typically 33% to 48%.[4] As with all heat engines, their eciency is limited, and
governed by the laws of thermodynamics. Other types of power stations are
subject to dierent eciency limitations, most hydropower stations in the United
States are about 90 percent ecient in converting the energy of falling water into
electricity[5] while the eciency of a wind turbine is limited by Betz's law, to about
59.3%.

The energy of a thermal power plant not utilized in power production must leave
the plant in the form of heat to the environment. This waste heat can go through a
condenser and be disposed of with cooling water or in cooling towers. If the waste
heat is instead utilized for district heating, it is called co-generation. An important
class of thermal power station are associated with desalination facilities; these are
typically found in desert countries with large supplies of natural gas and in these
plants, freshwater production and electricity are equally important co-products.

The Carnot eciency dictates that higher eciencies can be attained by

increasing the temperature of the steam. Sub-critical fossil fuel power plants can
achieve 3640% eciency. Super critical designs have eciencies in the low to
mid 40% range, with new "ultra critical" designs using pressures of 4400 psi
(30.3 MPa) and multiple stage reheat reaching about 48% eciency. Above the
critical point for water of 705F (374C) and 3212 psi (22.06 MPa), there is no
phase transition from water to steam, but only a gradual decrease in density.

Currently most of the nuclear power plants must operate below the temperatures
and pressures that coal-red plants do, in order to provide more conservative
safety margins within the systems that remove heat from the nuclear fuel rods.
This, in turn, limits their thermodynamic eciency to 3032%. Some advanced
reactor designs being studied, such as the very high temperature reactor,
advanced gas-cooled reactor and supercritical water reactor, would operate at
temperatures and pressures similar to current coal plants, producing comparable
thermodynamic eciency.

Electricity cost

See also: Relative cost of electricity generated by dierent sources

The direct cost of electric energy produced by a thermal power station is the
result of cost of fuel, capital cost for the plant, operator labour, maintenance, and
such factors as ash handling and disposal. Indirect, social or environmental costs
such as the economic value of environmental impacts, or environmental and
health eects of the complete fuel cycle and plant decommissioning, are not
usually assigned to generation costs for thermal stations in utility practice, but
may form part of an environmental impact assessment.

Typical coal thermal power station

Typical diagram of a coal-red thermal power station

1. Cooling tower 10. Steam Control valve 19. Superheater

11. High pressure steam
2. Cooling water pump 20. Forced draught (draft) fan
turbine
3. Transmission line (3-phase) 12. Deaerator 21. Reheater
4. Step-up transformer
13. Feedwater heater 22. Combustion air intake
(3-phase)
5. Electrical generator (3-phase) 14. Coal conveyor 23. Economiser
6. Low pressure steam turbine 15. Coal hopper 24. Air preheater
7. Condensate pump 16. Coal pulverizer 25. Precipitator
8. Surface condenser 17. Boiler steam drum 26. Induced draught (draft) fan
9. Intermediate pressure steam
18. Bottom ash hopper 27. Flue-gas stack
turbine

For units over about 200 MW capacity, redundancy of key components is provided
by installing duplicates of the forced and induced draft fans, air preheaters, and y
ash collectors. On some units of about 60MW, two boilers per unit may instead be
provided. The list of coal power stations has the 200 largest power stations
ranging in size from 2,000MW to 5,500MW.

Boiler and steam cycle

In the nuclear plant eld, steam generator refers to a specic type of large heat
exchanger used in a pressurized water reactor (PWR) to thermally connect the
primary (reactor plant) and secondary (steam plant) systems, which generates
steam. In a nuclear reactor called a boiling water reactor (BWR), water is boiled to
generate steam directly in the reactor itself and there are no units called steam
generators.

In some industrial settings, there can also be steam-producing heat exchangers

called heat recovery steam generators (HRSG) which utilize heat from some
industrial process, most commonly utilizing hot exhaust from a gas turbine. The
steam generating boiler has to produce steam at the high purity, pressure and
temperature required for the steam turbine that drives the electrical generator.

Geothermal plants need no boiler since they use naturally occurring steam
sources. Heat exchangers may be used where the geothermal steam is very
corrosive or contains excessive suspended solids.

A fossil fuel steam generator includes an economizer, a steam drum, and the
furnace with its steam generating tubes and superheater coils. Necessary safety
valves are located at suitable points to relieve excessive boiler pressure. The air
and ue gas path equipment include: forced draft (FD) fan, air preheater (AP),
boiler furnace, induced draft (ID) fan, y ash collectors (electrostatic precipitator
or baghouse) and the ue gas stack.[6][7][8]

Feed water heating and deaeration

The boiler feedwater used in the steam boiler is a means of transferring heat
energy from the burning fuel to the mechanical energy of the spinning steam
turbine. The total feed water consists of recirculated condensate water and
puried makeup water. Because the metallic materials it contacts are subject to
corrosion at high temperatures and pressures, the makeup water is highly puried
before use. A system of water softeners and ion exchange demineralizers
produces water so pure that it coincidentally becomes an electrical insulator, with
conductivity in the range of 0.31.0 microsiemens per centimeter. The makeup
water in a 500MWe plant amounts to perhaps 120 US gallons per minute (7.6
L/s) to replace water drawn o from the boiler drums for water purity
management, and to also oset the small losses from steam leaks in the system.

The feed water cycle begins with condensate water being pumped out of the
condenser after traveling through the steam turbines. The condensate ow rate at
full load in a 500MW plant is about 6,000 US gallons per minute (400 L/s).
 Diagram of boiler feed water deaerator (with
vertical, domed aeration section and horizontal
water storage section).

The water is pressurized in two stages, and ows through a series of six or seven
intermediate feed water heaters, heated up at each point with steam extracted
from an appropriate duct on the turbines and gaining temperature at each stage.
Typically, in the middle of this series of feedwater heaters, and before the second
stage of pressurization, the condensate plus the makeup water ows through a
deaerator[9][10] that removes dissolved air from the water, further purifying and
reducing its corrosiveness. The water may be dosed following this point with
hydrazine, a chemical that removes the remaining oxygen in the water to below 5
parts per billion (ppb). It is also dosed with pH control agents such as ammonia or
morpholine to keep the residual acidity low and thus non-corrosive.

Boiler operation

The boiler is a rectangular furnace about 50 feet (15m) on a side and 130 feet
(40m) tall. Its walls are made of a web of high pressure steel tubes about 2.3
inches (58mm) in diameter.

Pulverized coal is air-blown into the furnace through burners located at the four
corners, or along one wall, or two opposite walls, and it is ignited to rapidly burn,
forming a large reball at the center. The thermal radiation of the reball heats the
water that circulates through the boiler tubes near the boiler perimeter. The water
circulation rate in the boiler is three to four times the throughput. As the water in
the boiler circulates it absorbs heat and changes into steam. It is separated from
the water inside a drum at the top of the furnace. The saturated steam is
introduced into superheat pendant tubes that hang in the hottest part of the
combustion gases as they exit the furnace. Here the steam is superheated to
1,000F (540C) to prepare it for the turbine.

Plants designed for lignite (brown coal) are increasingly used in locations as
varied as Germany, Victoria, Australia and North Dakota. Lignite is a much younger
form of coal than black coal. It has a lower energy density than black coal and
requires a much larger furnace for equivalent heat output. Such coals may contain
up to 70% water and ash, yielding lower furnace temperatures and requiring
larger induced-draft fans. The ring systems also dier from black coal and
typically draw hot gas from the furnace-exit level and mix it with the incoming coal
in fan-type mills that inject the pulverized coal and hot gas mixture into the boiler.

Plants that use gas turbines to heat the water for conversion into steam use
boilers known as heat recovery steam generators (HRSG). The exhaust heat from
the gas turbines is used to make superheated steam that is then used in a
conventional water-steam generation cycle, as described in gas turbine
combined-cycle plants section below.

Boiler furnace and steam drum

The water enters the boiler through a section in the convection pass called the
economizer. From the economizer it passes to the steam drum and from there it
goes through downcomers to inlet headers at the bottom of the water walls. From
these headers the water rises through the water walls of the furnace where some
of it is turned into steam and the mixture of water and steam then re-enters the
steam drum. This process may be driven purely by natural circulation (because
the water is the downcomers is denser than the water/steam mixture in the water
walls) or assisted by pumps. In the steam drum, the water is returned to the
downcomers and the steam is passed through a series of steam separators and
dryers that remove water droplets from the steam. The dry steam then ows into
the superheater coils.

The boiler furnace auxiliary equipment includes coal feed nozzles and igniter
guns, soot blowers, water lancing and observation ports (in the furnace walls) for
observation of the furnace interior. Furnace explosions due to any accumulation of
combustible gases after a trip-out are avoided by ushing out such gases from the
combustion zone before igniting the coal.

The steam drum (as well as the super heater coils and headers) have air vents and
drains needed for initial start up.

Superheater

Fossil fuel power plants often have a superheater section in the steam generating
furnace. The steam passes through drying equipment inside the steam drum on to
the superheater, a set of tubes in the furnace. Here the steam picks up more
energy from hot ue gases outside the tubing, and its temperature is now
superheated above the saturation temperature. The superheated steam is then
piped through the main steam lines to the valves before the high-pressure turbine.

Nuclear-powered steam plants do not have such sections but produce steam at
essentially saturated conditions. Experimental nuclear plants were equipped with
fossil-red super heaters in an attempt to improve overall plant operating cost.

Steam condensing

The condenser condenses the steam from the exhaust of the turbine into liquid to
allow it to be pumped. If the condenser can be made cooler, the pressure of the
exhaust steam is reduced and eciency of the cycle increases.

Diagram of a typical water-cooled surface condenser. [7][8]

[11][12]

The surface condenser is a shell and tube heat exchanger in which cooling water
is circulated through the tubes.[7][11][12][13] The exhaust steam from the
low-pressure turbine enters the shell, where it is cooled and converted to
condensate (water) by owing over the tubes as shown in the adjacent diagram.
Such condensers use steam ejectors or rotary motor-driven exhausts for
continuous removal of air and gases from the steam side to maintain vacuum.

For best eciency, the temperature in the condenser must be kept as low as
practical in order to achieve the lowest possible pressure in the condensing
steam. Since the condenser temperature can almost always be kept signicantly
below 100C where the vapor pressure of water is much less than atmospheric
pressure, the condenser generally works under vacuum. Thus leaks of
non-condensible air into the closed loop must be prevented.

Typically the cooling water causes the steam to condense at a temperature of

about 25C (77F) and that creates an absolute pressure in the condenser of
about 27kPa (0.592.07inHg), i.e. a vacuum of about 95kPa (28inHg)
relative to atmospheric pressure. The large decrease in volume that occurs when
water vapor condenses to liquid creates the low vacuum that helps pull steam
through and increase the eciency of the turbines.

The limiting factor is the temperature of the cooling water and that, in turn, is
limited by the prevailing average climatic conditions at the power plant's location
(it may be possible to lower the temperature beyond the turbine limits during
winter, causing excessive condensation in the turbine). Plants operating in hot
climates may have to reduce output if their source of condenser cooling water
becomes warmer; unfortunately this usually coincides with periods of high
electrical demand for air conditioning.

The condenser generally uses either circulating cooling water from a cooling
tower to reject waste heat to the atmosphere, or once-through water from a river,
lake or ocean.

A Marley mechanical
induced draft cooling
tower

The heat absorbed by the circulating cooling water in the condenser tubes must
also be removed to maintain the ability of the water to cool as it circulates. This is
done by pumping the warm water from the condenser through either natural draft,
forced draft or induced draft cooling towers (as seen in the adjacent image) that
reduce the temperature of the water by evaporation, by about 11to17C
(20to30F)expelling waste heat to the atmosphere. The circulation ow rate of
the cooling water in a 500 MW unit is about 14.2 m/s (500ft/s or 225,000 US
gal/min) at full load.[14]

The condenser tubes are made of brass or stainless steel to resist corrosion from
either side. Nevertheless, they may become internally fouled during operation by
bacteria or algae in the cooling water or by mineral scaling, all of which inhibit
heat transfer and reduce thermodynamic eciency. Many plants include an
automatic cleaning system that circulates sponge rubber balls through the tubes
to scrub them clean without the need to take the system o-line.

The cooling water used to condense the steam in the condenser returns to its
source without having been changed other than having been warmed. If the water
returns to a local water body (rather than a circulating cooling tower), it is often
tempered with cool 'raw' water to prevent thermal shock when discharged into
that body of water.
Another form of condensing system is the air-cooled condenser. The process is
similar to that of a radiator and fan. Exhaust heat from the low-pressure section of
a steam turbine runs through the condensing tubes, the tubes are usually nned
and ambient air is pushed through the ns with the help of a large fan. The steam
condenses to water to be reused in the water-steam cycle. Air-cooled condensers
typically operate at a higher temperature than water-cooled versions. While saving
water, the eciency of the cycle is reduced (resulting in more carbon dioxide per
megawatt-hour of electricity).

From the bottom of the condenser, powerful condensate pumps recycle the
condensed steam (water) back to the water/steam cycle.

Reheater

Power plant furnaces may have a reheater section containing tubes heated by hot
ue gases outside the tubes. Exhaust steam from the high-pressure turbine is
passed through these heated tubes to collect more energy before driving the
intermediate and then low-pressure turbines.

Air path

External fans are provided to give sucient air for combustion. The Primary air fan
takes air from the atmosphere and, rst warms the air in the air preheater for
better economy. Primary air then passes through the coal pulverizers, and carries
the coal dust to the burners for injection into the furnace. The Secondary air fan
takes air from the atmosphere and, rst warms the air in the air preheater for
better economy. Secondary air is mixed with the coal/primary air ow in the
burners.

The induced draft fan assists the FD fan by drawing out combustible gases from
the furnace, maintaining a slightly negative pressure in the furnace to avoid
leakage of combustion products from the boiler casing.

Steam turbine generator

Main article: Turbo generator

 Rotor of a modern steam turbine, used in
a power station

The turbine generator consists of a series of steam turbines interconnected to

each other and a generator on a common shaft. There is usually a high-pressure
turbine at one end, followed by an intermediate-pressure turbine, and nally one,
two, or three low-pressure turbines, and the generator. As steam moves through
the system and loses pressure and thermal energy, it expands in volume, requiring
increasing diameter and longer blades at each succeeding stage to extract the
remaining energy. The entire rotating mass may be over 200 metric tons and 100
feet (30m) long. It is so heavy that it must be kept turning slowly even when shut
down (at 3 rpm) so that the shaft will not bow even slightly and become
unbalanced. This is so important that it is one of only six functions of blackout
emergency power batteries on site. (The other ve being emergency lighting,
communication, station alarms, generator hydrogen seal system, and
turbogenerator lube oil.)

For a typical late 20th-century power plant, superheated steam from the boiler is
delivered through 1416-inch (360410mm) diameter piping at 2,400psi
(17MPa; 160atm) and 1,000F (540C) to the high-pressure turbine, where it
falls in pressure to 600psi (4.1MPa; 41atm) and to 600F (320C) in
temperature through the stage. It exits via 2426-inch (610660mm) diameter
cold reheat lines and passes back into the boiler, where the steam is reheated in
special reheat pendant tubes back to 1,000F (540C). The hot reheat steam is
conducted to the intermediate pressure turbine, where it falls in both temperature
and pressure and exits directly to the long-bladed low-pressure turbines and
nally exits to the condenser.

The generator, 30 feet (9m) long and 12 feet (3.7m) in diameter, contains a
stationary stator and a spinning rotor, each containing miles of heavy copper
conductorno permanent magnets here. In operation it generates up to 21,000
amperes at 24,000 volts AC (504MWe) as it spins at either 3,000 or 3,600 rpm,
synchronized to the power grid. The rotor spins in a sealed chamber cooled with
hydrogen gas, selected because it has the highest known heat transfer coecient
of any gas and for its low viscosity, which reduces windage losses. This system
requires special handling during startup, with air in the chamber rst displaced by
carbon dioxide before lling with hydrogen. This ensures that a highly explosive
hydrogenoxygen environment is not created.

The power grid frequency is 60 Hz across North America and 50Hz in Europe,
Oceania, Asia (Korea and parts of Japan are notable exceptions) and parts of
Africa. The desired frequency aects the design of large turbines, since they are
highly optimized for one particular speed.

The electricity ows to a distribution yard where transformers increase the voltage
for transmission to its destination.

The steam turbine-driven generators have auxiliary systems enabling them to

work satisfactorily and safely. The steam turbine generator, being rotating
equipment, generally has a heavy, large-diameter shaft. The shaft therefore
requires not only supports but also has to be kept in position while running. To
minimize the frictional resistance to the rotation, the shaft has a number of
bearings. The bearing shells, in which the shaft rotates, are lined with a
low-friction material like Babbitt metal. Oil lubrication is provided to further
reduce the friction between shaft and bearing surface and to limit the heat
generated.

Stack gas path and cleanup

See also: Flue-gas emissions from fossil-fuel combustion and Flue-gas desulfurization

As the combustion ue gas exits the boiler it is routed through a rotating at

basket of metal mesh which picks up heat and returns it to incoming fresh air as
the basket rotates. This is called the air preheater. The gas exiting the boiler is
laden with y ash, which are tiny spherical ash particles. The ue gas contains
nitrogen along with combustion products carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and
nitrogen oxides. The y ash is removed by fabric bag lters or electrostatic
precipitators. Once removed, the y ash byproduct can sometimes be used in the
manufacturing of concrete. This cleaning up of ue gases, however, only occurs in
plants that are tted with the appropriate technology. Still, the majority of
coal-red power plants in the world do not have these facilities. Legislation in
Europe has been ecient to reduce ue gas pollution. Japan has been using ue
gas cleaning technology for over 30 years and the US has been doing the same for
over 25 years. China is now beginning to grapple with the pollution caused by
coal-red power plants.

Where required by law, the sulfur and nitrogen oxide pollutants are removed by
stack gas scrubbers which use a pulverized limestone or other alkaline wet slurry
to remove those pollutants from the exit stack gas. Other devices use catalysts to
remove Nitrous Oxide compounds from the ue gas stream. The gas travelling up
the ue gas stack may by this time have dropped to about 50C (120F). A
typical ue gas stack may be 150180 metres (490590ft) tall to disperse the
remaining ue gas components in the atmosphere. The tallest ue gas stack in the
world is 419.7 metres (1,377ft) tall at the GRES-2 power plant in Ekibastuz,
Kazakhstan.

In the United States and a number of other countries, atmospheric dispersion

modeling[15] studies are required to determine the ue gas stack height needed to
comply with the local air pollution regulations. The United States also requires the
height of a ue gas stack to comply with what is known as the "Good Engineering
Practice (GEP)" stack height.[16][17] In the case of existing ue gas stacks that
exceed the GEP stack height, any air pollution dispersion modeling studies for
such stacks must use the GEP stack height rather than the actual stack height.

Fly ash collection

Fly ash is captured and removed from the ue gas by electrostatic precipitators or
fabric bag lters (or sometimes both) located at the outlet of the furnace and
before the induced draft fan. The y ash is periodically removed from the
collection hoppers below the precipitators or bag lters. Generally, the y ash is
pneumatically transported to storage silos for subsequent transport by trucks or
railroad cars.

Bottom ash collection and disposal

At the bottom of the furnace, there is a hopper for collection of bottom ash. This
hopper is always lled with water to quench the ash and clinkers falling down from
the furnace. Some arrangement is included to crush the clinkers and for conveying
the crushed clinkers and bottom ash to a storage site. Ash extractor is used to
discharge ash from Municipal solid wastered boilers.

Auxiliary systems

Boiler make-up water treatment plant and storage

Since there is continuous withdrawal of steam and continuous return of

condensate to the boiler, losses due to blowdown and leakages have to be made
up to maintain a desired water level in the boiler steam drum. For this, continuous
make-up water is added to the boiler water system. Impurities in the raw water
input to the plant generally consist of calcium and magnesium salts which impart
hardness to the water. Hardness in the make-up water to the boiler will form
deposits on the tube water surfaces which will lead to overheating and failure of
the tubes. Thus, the salts have to be removed from the water, and that is done by a
water demineralising treatment plant (DM). A DM plant generally consists of
cation, anion, and mixed bed exchangers. Any ions in the nal water from this
process consist essentially of hydrogen ions and hydroxide ions, which recombine
to form pure water. Very pure DM water becomes highly corrosive once it absorbs
oxygen from the atmosphere because of its very high anity for oxygen.

The capacity of the DM plant is dictated by the type and quantity of salts in the
raw water input. However, some storage is essential as the DM plant may be down
for maintenance. For this purpose, a storage tank is installed from which DM water
is continuously withdrawn for boiler make-up. The storage tank for DM water is
made from materials not aected by corrosive water, such as PVC. The piping and
valves are generally of stainless steel. Sometimes, a steam blanketing
arrangement or stainless steel doughnut oat is provided on top of the water in
the tank to avoid contact with air. DM water make-up is generally added at the
steam space of the surface condenser (i.e., the vacuum side). This arrangement
not only sprays the water but also DM water gets deaerated, with the dissolved
gases being removed by a de-aerator through an ejector attached to the
condenser.

Fuel preparation system

Conveyor system for moving coal

(visible at far left) into a power plant

In coal-red power stations, the raw feed coal from the coal storage area is rst
crushed into small pieces and then conveyed to the coal feed hoppers at the
boilers. The coal is next pulverized into a very ne powder. The pulverizers may be
ball mills, rotating drum grinders, or other types of grinders.

Some power stations burn fuel oil rather than coal. The oil must kept warm (above
its pour point) in the fuel oil storage tanks to prevent the oil from congealing and
becoming unpumpable. The oil is usually heated to about 100C before being
pumped through the furnace fuel oil spray nozzles.

Boilers in some power stations use processed natural gas as their main fuel. Other
power stations may use processed natural gas as auxiliary fuel in the event that
their main fuel supply (coal or oil) is interrupted. In such cases, separate gas
burners are provided on the boiler furnaces.

Barring gear

Barring gear (or "turning gear") is the mechanism provided to rotate the turbine
generator shaft at a very low speed after unit stoppages. Once the unit is
"tripped" (i.e., the steam inlet valve is closed), the turbine coasts down towards
standstill. When it stops completely, there is a tendency for the turbine shaft to
deect or bend if allowed to remain in one position too long. This is because the
heat inside the turbine casing tends to concentrate in the top half of the casing,
making the top half portion of the shaft hotter than the bottom half. The shaft
therefore could warp or bend by millionths of inches.

This small shaft deection, only detectable by eccentricity meters, would be

enough to cause damaging vibrations to the entire steam turbine generator unit
when it is restarted. The shaft is therefore automatically turned at low speed
(about one percent rated speed) by the barring gear until it has cooled suciently
to permit a complete stop.

Oil system

An auxiliary oil system pump is used to supply oil at the start-up of the steam
turbine generator. It supplies the hydraulic oil system required for steam turbine's
main inlet steam stop valve, the governing control valves, the bearing and seal oil
systems, the relevant hydraulic relays and other mechanisms.

At a preset speed of the turbine during start-ups, a pump driven by the turbine
main shaft takes over the functions of the auxiliary system.

Generator cooling

While small generators may be cooled by air drawn through lters at the inlet,
larger units generally require special cooling arrangements. Hydrogen gas cooling,
in an oil-sealed casing, is used because it has the highest known heat transfer
coecient of any gas and for its low viscosity which reduces windage losses. This
system requires special handling during start-up, with air in the generator
enclosure rst displaced by carbon dioxide before lling with hydrogen. This
ensures that the highly ammable hydrogen does not mix with oxygen in the air.

The hydrogen pressure inside the casing is maintained slightly higher than
atmospheric pressure to avoid outside air ingress. The hydrogen must be sealed
against outward leakage where the shaft emerges from the casing. Mechanical
seals around the shaft are installed with a very small annular gap to avoid rubbing
between the shaft and the seals. Seal oil is used to prevent the hydrogen gas
leakage to atmosphere.

The generator also uses water cooling. Since the generator coils are at a potential
of about 22 kV, an insulating barrier such as Teon is used to interconnect the
water line and the generator high-voltage windings. Demineralized water of low
conductivity is used.

Generator high-voltage system

The generator voltage for modern utility-connected generators ranges from 11 kV

in smaller units to 30 kV in larger units. The generator high-voltage leads are
normally large aluminium channels because of their high current as compared to
the cables used in smaller machines. They are enclosed in well-grounded
aluminium bus ducts and are supported on suitable insulators. The generator
high-voltage leads are connected to step-up transformers for connecting to a
high-voltage electrical substation (usually in the range of 115 kV to 765 kV) for
further transmission by the local power grid.

The necessary protection and metering devices are included for the high-voltage
leads. Thus, the steam turbine generator and the transformer form one unit.
Smaller units may share a common generator step-up transformer with individual
circuit breakers to connect the generators to a common bus.

Monitoring and alarm system

Most of the power plant operational controls are automatic. However, at times,
manual intervention may be required. Thus, the plant is provided with monitors
and alarm systems that alert the plant operators when certain operating
parameters are seriously deviating from their normal range.

Battery-supplied emergency lighting and communication

A central battery system consisting of lead acid cell units is provided to supply
emergency electric power, when needed, to essential items such as the power
plant's control systems, communication systems, generator hydrogen seal system,
turbine lube oil pumps, and emergency lighting. This is essential for a safe,
damage-free shutdown of the units in an emergency situation.

Circulating water system

See also: Circulating Water Plant

To dissipate the thermal load of main turbine exhaust steam, condensate from
gland steam condenser, and condensate from Low Pressure Heater by providing a
continuous supply of cooling water to the main condenser thereby leading to
condensation.

The consumption of cooling water by inland power plants is estimated to reduce

power availability for the majority of thermal power plants by 20402069. [18]

Transport of coal fuel to site and to storage

Main article: Fossil-fuel_power_station Fuel_transport_and_delivery

Most thermal stations use coal as the main fuel. Raw coal is transported from coal
mines to a power station site by trucks, barges, bulk cargo ships or railway cars.
Generally, when shipped by railways, the coal cars are sent as a full train of cars.
The coal received at site may be of dierent sizes. The railway cars are unloaded
at site by rotary dumpers or side tilt dumpers to tip over onto conveyor belts
below. The coal is generally conveyed to crushers which crush the coal to about 34
inch (19mm) size. The crushed coal is then sent by belt conveyors to a storage
pile. Normally, the crushed coal is compacted by bulldozers, as compacting of
highly volatile coal avoids spontaneous ignition.

The crushed coal is conveyed from the storage pile to silos or hoppers at the
boilers by another belt conveyor system.

See also

Boiler

List of signicant thermal power station failures

Combined heat and power

Cooling tower system

Flue gas stacks

Fossil-fuel power station

Geothermal power

Nuclear power

Power station

Relative cost of electricity generated by dierent sources

Surface condenser

Levelised energy cost

 Water-tube boiler

Integrated Gasication Combined Cycle

List of largest power stations in the world

References

1. ^ Electricity

2. ^ https://books.google.com/books?id=ZMw7AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA175 The early

days of the power station industry, Cambridge University Press Archive, pages
174-175

3. ^ Maury Klein, The Power Makers: Steam, Electricity, and the Men Who Invented
Modern America Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2009 ISBN 1-59691-677-X

4. ^ "DOE Fossil Energy: How Turbine Power Plants Work" . Fossil.energy.gov.

Archived from the original on May 27, 2010. Retrieved 2011-09-25.

5. ^ Climate TechBook, Hydropower , Pew Center on Global Climate Change,

October 2009

6. ^ British Electricity International (1991). Modern Power Station Practice:

incorporating modern power system practice (3rd Edition (12 volume set) ed.).
Pergamon. ISBN 0-08-040510-X.

7. ^ a b c Babcock & Wilcox Co. (2005). Steam: Its Generation and Use (41st ed.).
ISBN 0-9634570-0-4.

8. ^ a b Thomas C. Elliott, Kao Chen, Robert Swanekamp (coauthors) (1997).

Standard Handbook of Powerplant Engineering (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill
Professional. ISBN 0-07-019435-1.

9. ^ Pressurized deaerators

10. ^ Tray deaerating heaters

11. ^ a b Air Pollution Control Orientation Course from website of the Air
Pollution Training Institute

12. ^ a b Energy savings in steam systems Figure 3a, Layout of surface

condenser (scroll to page 11 of 34 pdf pages)

13. ^ Robert Thurston Kent (Editor in Chief) (1936). Kents Mechanical Engineers
Handbook (Eleventh edition (Two volumes) ed.). John Wiley & Sons (Wiley
Engineering Handbook Series).

14. ^ Maulbetsch, John; Zammit, Kent (2003-05-06). "Cooling System Retrot

Costs" (PDF). Cooling Water Intakes. Washington, DC: US Environmental
Protection Agency. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 9, 2008. Retrieved
2006-09-10. EPA Workshop on Cooling Water Intake Technologies, Arlington,
Virginia.

15. ^ Beychok, Milton R. (2005). Fundamentals Of Stack Gas Dispersion (4th ed.).
author-published. ISBN 0-9644588-0-2. www.air-dispersion.com

16. ^ Guideline for Determination of Good Engineering Practice Stack Height

(Technical Support Document for the Stack Height Regulations), Revised, 1985,
EPA Publication No. EPA450/480023R, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(NTIS No. PB 85225241)

17. ^ Lawson, Jr., R. E. and W. H. Snyder, 1983. Determination of Good Engineering

Practice Stack Height: A Demonstration Study for a Power Plant, 1983, EPA
Publication No. EPA600/383024. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (NTIS
No. PB 83207407)

18. ^ Michelle T. H. van Vliet, David Wiberg, Sylvain Leduc & Keywan Riahi (4
January 2016). "Power-generation system vulnerability and adaptation to
changes in climate and water resources" . doi:10.1038/nclimate2903 .
Retrieved 28 March 2016.

External links

Thermal Power Plant:Indian Context

Conventional coal-red power plant

Power plant diagram

Power Plant Reference Books

Steam jet ejectors

Steam jet ejector performance guidelines

First on YouTube and second on YouTube video lectures by S. Banerjee on

"Thermal Power Plants"

Last edited 16 days ago by Lklundin