Electrical Power Plant Engineering

Dr. Fouad Zaro

Assistant Professor

Electrical Engineering Department

Palestine Polytechnic University

Useful Definitions
Energy is the ability to perform work.
Energy cannot be created or destroyed but can be converted from one
form to another.
examples,
chemical energy in fossil fuels can be converted into electrical energy.

Electrical energy in turn can be converted into useful work in the form of heat,
light, and motion.

Energy measured in watt seconds or joules, traditionally in the electric

power industry, kWh, MWh, GWh, TWh
Example, A 100 watt light bulb consumes 2,400 Wh (or 2.4 kWh) of energy
in 24 hours.

Electrical Power Plants

Useful Definitions
Power is the rate at which energy is flowing or work is being done.
power = energy / time
power loss is equal to

PLoss RI 2

Loss in a transmission line can be reduced by increasing the transmission

voltage, which allows the current to be reduced for the same amount of
power transmitted.
Long transmission lines employ high voltage. High-voltage lines have
drawbacks, including the need to maintain larger clearances to maintain
safety.

Work is the amount of energy transferred by a force acting through a

distance (units : N.m)
W=F.d

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Power Plants
Power plant is assembly of systems or subsystems to generate electricity,
So the power produced must be
1. economically useful.
2. Environmental friendly to society
power plant may also be defined as:
The engineering and technology required for the production of central
station of electric power.

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Classification of power plant

Methods of general classification of electricity generation power plant are
as follows :
1. Status
2. Fuel type
3. Capacity
4. Operation
5. Prime mover

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I. Status
Conventional

Non Conventional

Steam turbine PP

Wind energy PP

Steam engine PP

Geothermal energy

Diesel PP

Ocean thermal energy

Gas turbine PP

Wave & tidal wave

Hydro-electric PP

Solar energy

Nuclear PP

Biogas & biomass energy

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II. Fuel Type

1.

Heat engine

2.

Where mechanical power is produced by heat engine, which transfer

thermal energy from combustion of fuel to rotational mechanical energy

Nuclear PP
Nuclear reactors heat is used to generate steam and thus operates steam
turbine

3.

Fossil fuel
Where natural gas fired plant may be used in steam turbine or gas turbine

4.

Geothermal power
Steam is extracted from hot underground source.

5.

Renewable energy
Waste, biomass, wind power, solar energy .. etc

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III. Capacity
Power plant can be classified according to its capacity :
1.

Small power plant :

2.

Medium capacity plant :

3.

production capacity lies in the range of (5 100) MW

High capacity plant :

4.

producing less than (5 MW)

Have production range of (101 1000) MW

Super capacity plant :

Exceeds (1000) MW power production level

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IV. Operation
1.

Base load plant

2.

Intermediate load

3.

Used to meet the base power needs of the system. Run continuously throughout the year
except when they have to be shut down for repair and maintenance.
Must be reliable and economical to operate.
These Nuclear and coal plants, generally, Because of their low fuel costs. However, They are
expensive to build and have slow ramp ratesthat is, their output power can be changed only
slowly (on the order of hours).

operate for extended periods of time

They have the ability to vary their output more quickly than base load units.
These Combined-cycle gas turbine plants and older thermal generating units.

Peak load

Used in a small fraction of time operate only when the system power demand is close to its
peak.
They have to be able to start and stop quickly, but they run only for a small number of hours in
a year.
Gas turbine and hydroelectric plants with reservoirs are generally used as peaking units.
Gas turbines are the least expensive to build but have high operating costs.
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V. Prime Mover
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Steam turbine
Gas turbine
Water turbine
Wind turbine
Combined cycle
Heat engine
Other sources as wave, sun light, etc

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Remarks
Large generating units generally are located outside densely populated
areas, and the power they produce has to be transported to load centers.
generating units produce three-phase ac voltage at the level of a few to a
few tens of kV.
To reduce power losses during onward transmission, this voltage is
immediately converted to a few hundred kV using a transformer.
All the generators on a single ac system are synchronized.
In addition to the main large generating units, the system typically also has
some distributed generation, including combined heat and power units.
The small generating units, generally operate at lower voltages and are
connected at the distribution system level.
Small generating units, such as solar photovoltaic arrays, may be singlephase.
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Remarks
Electric power systems are predominantly ac, although a few select
sections are dc.
Ac is preferred because it allows voltage levels to be changed with ease
using a transformer.
The voltage level of a dc system also can be changed, but doing so
requires more sophisticated and expensive equipment using power
electronics technology.
DC can be advantageous when energy has to be transmitted over long
distances.
Dc also is used to connect ac systems
that operate at different frequencies.
or systems with identical frequencies that are not synchronized.

Synchronized systems are at the same frequency and have a specific phase
difference between their voltages.
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Remarks
Three-phase ac has multiple advantages over single-phase ac
1.
2.

Requiring less conducting material in the transmission lines.

Allowing the total instantaneous power flowing from the generator
to be constant.

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Thermal Power Plant

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Thermal Power Plant

THERMAL POWER PLANT:
Steam Power Plant,
Diesel Power Plant,
Gas Turbine Power Plant,
Nuclear Power Plants
because these convert heat into electric energy.

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A typical Thermal Power Station Operates on a Cycle

A typical Thermal Power Station Operates on a Cycle

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Steam Prime Mover

The prime movers to be used for generating electricity could be
o
o
o
o
o

diesel engine,
steam engine,
steam turbines,
gas turbines,
water turbine.

The prime mover convert the natural resources of energy into

power or electricity.
Presently, the steam turbine has totally replaced steam engine.
The steam is generated in a boiler and is then expanded in the
turbine.
The output of the steam turbine is utilized to run the generator.

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Boiler
Purpose: To produce steam under pressure
Types:
1. Fire Tube Boiler: Hot gases of combustion are inside the tubes
and the tubes are surrounded by water.
2. Water Tube Boiler: Water is inside the tube and hot gases are
outside the tube.

Boiler

Fire Tube Boiler

Water Tube Boiler

Steam Condensers
Thermal efficiency of a closed cycle power developing system using steam
as working fluid and working on Carnot cycle is given by an expression

T2
1
T1

The efficiency of the steam plant is considerably increased by the use of a

condenser.
The maximum temperature T1 of the steam supplied to a steam prime
mover is limited by material considerations.
The temperature T2 (temperature at which heat is rejected) can be
reduced to the atmospheric temperature if the exhaust of the steam takes
place below atmospheric pressure. If the exhaust is at atmospheric
pressure, the heat rejection is at 100C.
Low exhaust pressure is necessary to obtain low exhaust temperature. But
the steam cannot be exhausted to the atmosphere if it is expanded in the
engine or turbine to a pressure lower than the atmospheric pressure.
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Steam Condensers
A condenser is a closed vessel in which steam is condensed by
abstracting the heat and where the pressure is maintained below
atmospheric pressure.
The steam condenser is one of the essential components of all
modern steam power plants.
Steam condenser are of two types:
1. Surface condenser.
2. Jet condenser.

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Cooling Tower

Remove heat from the water discharged from the condenser so that the water
can be discharged to the river or recirculated and reused.
Some power plants, usually located on lakes or rivers, use cooling towers as a
method of cooling the circulating water (the third non-radioactive cycle) that
has been heated in the condenser.
During colder months and fish non-spawning periods, the discharge from the
condenser may be directed to the river. Recirculation of the water back to the
inlet to the condenser occurs during certain fish sensitive times of the year
(e.g. spring, summer, fall) so that only a limited amount of water from the
plant condenser may be discharged to the lake or river.
It is important to note that the heat transferred in a condenser may heat the
circulating water as much as 40 degrees Fahrenheit (F).
In some cases, power plants may have restrictions that prevent discharging
water to the river at more than 90 degrees F. In other cases, they may have
limits of no more than 5 degrees F difference between intake and discharge
(averaged over a 24 hour period).
When Cooling Towers are used, plant efficiency usually drops. One reason is
that the Cooling Tower pumps (and fans, if used) consume a lot of power.
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Types of Cooling Towers

1. Mechanical Draft Towers
Mechanical draft Cooling Towers have long piping runs that spray the water
downward. Large fans pull air across the dropping water to remove the heat.
As the water drops downward onto the "fill" or slats in the cooling tower, the
drops break up into a finer spray.

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Types of Cooling Towers

2. Natural Draft Towers
Natural draft towers are typically about
400 ft (120 m) high, depending on the
differential pressure between the cold
outside air and the hot humid air on the
inside of the tower as the driving force.
No fans are used.

Whether the natural or mechanical draft

towers are used depends on climatic and
operating requirement conditions.

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Superheater

Device used to remove the traces of moisture from saturated

steam leaving boiler tubes.

It also increase the temperature above saturation

temperature

Economizer
It absorbs heat from outgoing flue gases and used for raising the
temperature of feed water coming from condenser
Economizer raises efficiency of boiler by 10 -12 % thus 5 15 % of
fuel consumption is saved

Air Preheater
Air preheater is used to recover heat from flue
gases since entire heat cant be extracted by
economizer
Boiler Efficiency is increased by 1% if the avg.
air temp. is increased by 20C

Rankine Cycle

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Rankine Reheat Cycle

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Gas Turbine

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Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT)

o
o

The overall efficiency of a gas turbine can be increased by

feeding the heat of the exhaust gases into a steam power plant.

The combination of Brayton cycle and a Rankine cycle is called a

combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT).

The net effect is equivalent to that of a single cycle operating

between the upper temperature of a Brayton cycle and the lower
temperature of a Rankine cycle.

Efficiencies of up to 60% are typical in CCGT plants.

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Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT)

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Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT)