What are the main circuits in the Thermal Power Plant?

Answer: Thermal Power plant consists of four main circuits, they are:

Feed water and steam flow circuit

Coal and ash circuit
Air and gas circuit
Cooling water circuit

Steam power plant works on which cycle?

Answer: Steam power plant works on the principle of Rankine Cycle

What is the Thermal efficiency of steam power plant?

Answer: Thermal efficiency of steam power plant is defined as the ratio of heat equivalent of mechanical
energy transmitted to the turbine shaft to the heat of combustion. Generally Thermal efficiency of the
steam power plant will be in the range of 30-35%

What is the overall efficiency of the Thermal Power Plant or Steam Power Plant?

Answer: Overall efficiency of the system is defined as the ratio of heat equivalent of electrical output to
the heat of combustion. Generally Overall efficiency of the steam plant will always be less than the
thermal efficiency of the steam plant, it will be of the order of 29-33%

Overall efficiency of steam plant is determined by multiplying the thermal efficiency of the plant with
efficiency of the generator (electrical efficiency)

Why the Thermal efficiency of the steam power plant is quite low?

Answer: In Steam power station, more than 50% of the total heat of combustion is lost as heat rejected
to the condenser and the loss is unavoidable as the heat energy cannot be converted in to mechanical
energy with out a drop in temperature. Steam in the condenser is at lowest temperature. This is the
reason that the thermal efficiency of the power plant is quite low.

On what factors efficiency (thermal) of the steam plant depends?

Answer: Efficiency of the thermal plant depends on three factors, they are

Pressure of steam entering the turbine

Temperature of the steam entering the turbine

 Pressure in the condenser

Thermal efficiency increases with increase in temperature and pressure of the steam entering the
turbine. For this reason high temperature and pressure are used. Thermal efficiency is effectively
increased by decreasing the pressure in the condenser, so pressure in the condenser is kept as low as
possible.

Thermal efficiency also increases by reheating the steam between turbine stages

What are the major electric systems in Thermal Power Plant?

Answer: Major electrical equipment in thermal power plant are

Turbine Generator
Exciter System
Generator Protection System
Generator Transformer
HT/LT switch gear
Electrical Switch-yard

What are the different Generator Protections employed in Thermal Power Plants?

Answer: Faults in the windings, Over load protection, Over heating of windings or bearings, Over speed
protection, Loss of Excitation protection, Motoring operation protection, Inadvertent energisation,
single phase or unbalanced current protection, out of step operation protection, sub-synchronous
oscillations protection and earth fault protection

How Generator Transformer is cooled in Thermal Power Plant?

Answer: MVA power rating of the Generator Transformer will be equal to the alternator. Hence lot of
heat will be generated while generator transformer is under operation. Oil Forced Air Forced (OFAF)
type of cooling is employed for generator transformer

What are different types of circuit breakers employed in thermal power plant?

Answer: For low voltage operation 415/220V vacuum circuit breakers or air break circuit breakers are
employed. For voltage ratings about 6.6kV and beyond SF6 circuit breakers are employed.

What type of cooling is provided for Generator in power plant?

Answer: Hydrogen gas cooling is employed for large size generators because of better heat carrying
ability of the hydrogen. Hydrogen cooling is provided for rotors and core of the generator. Water cooling
is provided for the stator of the alternator.

Thermal efficiency of Steam Power Plant:

In steam power plant overall efficiency will be in the order of about 30%. In case of modern thermal
power plats where super critical parameters (pressure and temperature) are employed and by
employing number heat savig devices the power plant efficiency will be raised to around 40%. Quality of
the coal also plays significant role in improving the efficiency of the Thermal Plant.

Some the losses occurring i the steam power plants are:

Loss at Boiler - 15%

Loss at the Turbo-Generator
Heat Rejection to the condenser - 55%
Alternator loss - 1%

From above mentioned figures we understand that more than 50% of total heat combustion is lost as
heat rejected to the condenser. This loss cannot be avoided as heat energy cannot be converted into
mechanical energy without (some heat rejected) drop in temperature (From the second law of
thermodynamics-A fraction of heat can only be converted to mechanical work and remaining heat must
be rejected). Steam in the condenser is at lowest temperature.

Thermal efficiency of the power plant mainly depends on three factors.

a) Pressure of the steam entering the turbine

b) Temperature of the steam entering the turbine

c) Pressure in the condenser

Thermal efficiency of the plant can be improved by increasing the temperature and pressure of the
steam. For this reason high temperature and pressure is used and also thermal efficiency is improved by
decreasing the pressure in the condenser

Also efficiency can be improved by reheating the steam between the turbine stages

Turbine Generator Hydrogen Seal System

For large generators in power plants hydrogen cooling is provided for efficient heat transfer and
electrical properties are superior to non explosive gases. High purity hydrogen will not support
combustion. However when hydrogen mixed with air to the level of 95% purity, it is explosive in nature.
Therefore a sealing system must be provided to prevent the hydrogen gas from escaping from the
generator casing. This is done by maintaining pressure on an oil seal around the generator shaft. As long
as the oil pressure is greater than the hydrogen gas pressure, a seal will be formed confining the gas
inside the generator and preventing leakage to the areas outside the casing.

For a generating unit the seal oil motors would consists of the following:

AC main seal oil pump (MSOP)

DC emergency seal oil pump (ESOP)
AC motor driven vacuum pump

The main seal oil pump is used normally and is backed up by the dc emergency seal oil pump, which is
fed from the station battery. These pumps circulate oil through the seals while the vacuum pump
removes the hydrogen from the oil in the hydrogen drain tanks. Some vendors will furnish two seal oil
pumps instead of one. These pumps, one for each side of the seal, are called the air side and hydrogen
side seal oil pumps
..
Bow and sag or normally called sagging and hogging occurs on a steam turbine rotor under the following
conditions:-

1) Hogging is when the turbine is shut down faster than normal or under trip conditions and the natural
cooling of the rotor is not allowed to happen, usually happens when the barring system fails to start, the
rotor bends in an upward motion in the middle and makes contact with the stator or casing thus
allowing rubbing etc to occur.

How to avoid:-

The only way you can over come this is to have effective barring systems to keep the rotor turning as it
cools thus not allowing the rotor to hog upwards.

2) Sagging of the rotor happens when the rotor is at ambient temperature and barring is not in place so
over time the weight of the rotor which is only supported on the rotor bearings allows the rotor to sag in
the middle and again the rotor can come into contact with the stator or casing.

If this occurs hand baring of the rotor is the only option 0.5 of a turn say every half hour until the rotor
becomes uniform in shape again once in it uniform shape (could take many hours) the barring system
can be put into service .

its just like our Sagging & hogging moments in shafts

which we learned in SMD & BMD.

Sagging downward -Ve

Hogging upward +Ve

Thnaks in advance!!!
A steam turbine has a fixed end and moving end. Both the ends are supported on independent
pedestals.

When turbine is in service, superheated steam (temperature above 540 degree celsius) is admitted into
the turbine. Due to heating up of parts of turbine, thermal expansion will take place.

What we need to consider is that one surface of turbine casing is exposed to atmospheric temperature
of 30 degree celsius while internal surface is exposed to superheated steam. Due to this temperature
differences, the expansion of turbine shaft will not be equal to that of turbine casing.

Absolute values of turbine-shaft expansion and turbine-casing expansion are measured using
LVDT(Linear Variable Differential Transformer) at the movable end of the turbine.

The difference between these two expansions is called Differential Expansion of a turbine.

Numerically :

Differential expansion = change in shaft's length - change in length of turbine casing.

This value is required to be as low as possible. But it will never be equal to zero due to practical
limitations.

Now coming to the importance of this parameter.

The internal features of turbine casing are made in such a way that the gap between turbine stage
blades(moving blades) and the internal feature(fixed blades) lie in the range of 20mm - 50mm.

Consider a case where the turbine is loaded(that is superheated steam is admitted) without prior
heating of the casing. In this case, the thermal expansion in shaft will be faster than compared to that of
turbine casing. In such a situation the turbine will start to touch the casing's internal features in no time
and the whole machinery will fail.

This situation is avoided by allowing steam to soak all parts of turbine shaft as well as inner parts of
casing for sufficient time before turbine is loaded. The soaking period depends on the initial
temperature and differential expansion of the turbine. An optimum value of differential expansion will
be such that the turbine-stage blades are almost at equidistant from closest internal features of casing.

The value of differential expansion also governs how fast a turbine can be loaded/unloaded to achieve
certain power output at generator end.

Thanks for reading. I hope it helps. What is meant by the droop setting in a steam turbine?

Suppose if Load is Increased , exactly what happened in an turbine ? Because If i am right, the speed is
decreased (as per droop setting )whenever the load is increased ! But as per the theory , whenever we
increase the load in an parallel mode ,the torque will increase and vice versa current will increase &
finally power will increase. So exactly what iam asking , whenever we increases the load in an parallel
mode , what happened in an steam turbine.

2 Answers

Ankit Gupta

Ankit Gupta

379 Views

In electrical power generation, Droop Speed Control is a speed control mode of a prime mover driving a

synchronous generator connected to an electrical grid . This mode allows synchronous generators to run
in parallel, so that loads are shared among generators in proportion to their power rating.

The frequency of a synchronus generator is given by

F=(N * P)/120
where

F = Frequency (in Hz),

P = number of poles,

N = Speed of generator (in RPM)

The frequency (F) of a synchronous generator is directly proportional to its speed (N). When multiple
synchronous generators are connected in parallel to electrical grid, the frequency is fixed by the grid,
since individual power output of each generator will be small compared to the load on a large grid, and
thus all the synchronous generators run at the same speed (N).

A speed reference as percentage of actual speed is set in this mode. As the generator is loaded from no
load to base load, the actual speed of the prime mover tend to decrease. In order to increase the power
output in this mode, the prime mover speed reference is increased. Because the actual prime mover
speed is fixed by the grid, this difference in speed reference and actual speed of the prime mover is used
to increase the flow of working fluid (fuel, steam, etc.) to the prime mover, and hence power output is
increased. The reverse will be true for decreasing power output. The prime mover speed reference is
always greater than actual speed of the prime mover. The actual speed of the prime mover is allowed to
"droop" or decrease with respect to the reference, and so the name.

For example, if the turbine is rated at 3000 rpm, and the machine speed reduces from 3000 rpm to 2880
rpm when it is loaded from no load to base load, then the droop % is given by

=(3000 3120) / 3000

= 4%

= (3000 2880) / 3000

= 4%

In this case, speed reference will be 104% and actual speed will be 100%. For every 1% change in the
turbine speed reference, the power output of the turbine will change by 25% of rated for a unit with a
4% droop setting.

Droop is therefore expressed as the percentage change in (design) speed required for 100% govern