Combined Cycle Gas Turbine

1. The Simulator
2. Advantage of Combined Cycle Gas Turbines
3. Description of System

The Simulator

The Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) Simulator is a simulation of a 400MW single-shaft combined
cycle power plant consisting of one gas turbine, one steam turbine, one generator and one heat recovery
steam generator (HRSG). The gas turbine and steam turbine are coupled to a single generator in a tandem
arrangement.

Advantage of Combined Cycle Gas Turbines

A combined cycle power plant utilizes a combination of gas turbines, steam turbines and heat recovery
steam generators to produce electrical power. Combined cycle power plants have the advantage of high
thermal efficiency, reliability and availability. A good steam turbine plant has an efficiency of about 37%, and
a gas turbine alone has an efficiency of about 31%, while a combined cycle system combining the two can
have an efficiency of more than 50%.

Description of System

Air is taken from the atmosphere into a compressor which compresses the air to a high pressure. The high
pressure air is then directed to a number of combustion chambers arranged around the periphery of the
compressor discharge. In the combustion chambers, the air is mixed with natural gas and ignited, producing
very high temperature gases. The hot combustion gases are directed into the gas turbine, where the energy
in the hot gases is converted into mechanical work to rotate the turbine blades. This rotates the generator,
which is connected on the same shaft to the turbine, producing electricity.
The exhaust gas is leaving the gas turbine still at a very high temperature and contains considerable amount
of heat energy. This energy is not wasted but is used to generate steam in a boiler, often referred to as a
heat recovery steam generator (HRSG). The HRSG has many bundles of tubes filled with water and is
divided into low pressure (LP), intermediate pressure (IP), high pressure (HP) and reheat sections. The hot
exhaust gases heat up the water inside the tubes as they pass over the tubes, converting the water inside
into steam. The gases then exit the HRSG through the exhaust stack, after giving up most of its heat to the
steam process. The steam generated in the HRSG is sent to the high pressure (HP), intermediate pressure
(IP), high pressure (HP) sections of the steam turbine.

The steam rotates the blades of the steam turbine, which is connected to the generator, producing additional
electricity. The steam leaving the steam turbine is condensed into water in the vacuum condenser. The
steam is cooled by a continuous flow of circulating water, which is pumped through a cooling tower to
remove excess heat from the water. The condensate in the condenser is extracted by the condensate
pumps and sent to the low pressure section of the HRSG.