Performance impacts on steam cycle, unit heat rate and output of a Thermal Generating Unit

BY: SHRI V.K.ANAND, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, CEA The heat exchangers, particularly in the regenerative cycle of a coal based unit are of utmost importance for an optimally economized operation of the power plants. Thus, these heat exchangers like, LP/HP heater, deaerator, Re-heater, superheaters, and condenser etc. are warranted to be operated at designed parameters to achieve optimal performance not of their own only, but also for the entire integrated system of the cycle of power plant unit. Thus, potential of heat exchanger networking need to be realized to its maximum capacity. The two vital parameters for performance and selection of a heat exchangers are TTD* & DCA.* The lower the TTD & DCA, the more efficient is the cycle and the larger is the surface area, which ultimately results in more efficient cycle having lower heater rate. But there is a limit to increase the surface area and then a detailed engineering study is required using applicable economics in enlarging the surface areas to achieve an optimum feed water parameters. There are other operational factors also which affect the optimal performance of cycle. *Drain Cooler Approach (DCA) is defined as temperature difference between the drains leaving the heater and feed water entering the heater. If we decrease the DCA of a heater, cycle efficiency is improved while surface area is increased. *TTD is the difference between the saturation temperature at the operating pressure of the condensing zone and temperature of feed water leaving the heater.

The design and operating parameters have a number of impacts on the performance of regenerative cycle system. These are as follows:1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Re-heater (R/H) & its system pressure drop Extraction line pressure drop Make up Turbine exhaust pressure Air preheat [Note: it is Air pre-heat not the Air heat] Condensate sub-cooling S/H & R/H spray flows Wet Bulb Temperature Top Heaters out of service H.P. Heater drain pump. Type of BFP drives & method of flow control

These factors influence the steam cycle's mass and energy balance, thereby causing performance impacts. Though these need to be maintained carefully and are hard in optimizing the cycle performance, yet can be achieved for bringing in improvement in cycle efficiency through adoption of best practices in operation & maintenance. If the changes in these parameters are observed, the relevant poorly performing component/equipment must be corrected on priority as these have cascading effect on each others performance, as well as cycle performance besides the economics of its operation & cost of power thus generated. 1. Impact on account of R/H & its system pressure drop: - The pressure drop across R/H, Cold Reheat (CRH) & Hot Reheat (HRH) piping is designed for 10% of HP turbine exhaust pressure. For a 1% decrease in this system pressure drop, improvement in the Turbine Heat Rate (THR) & output, approximately 0.1% & 0.3% is observed respectively. Impact of Extraction line pressure drop: For extractions which are drawn from locations other than HP & IP exhaust of turbine, a pressure drop of 6% drop across the extraction nozzle and 3% drop for piping & valves is permitted between stage pressure and heater shell pressure. For extractions at turbine-exhaust section, total drop is 3%. For every 2% increase in extraction line pressure drop, output & THR would be poorer by 0.09% approximately.
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Impact of cycle make up: A typical value between 0% & 3% are normally acceptable for a cycle make up to offset cycle water losses which may be on account of various retrievable leakages, boiler blow down, soot blowing and passing of valves & leakages. The additional make up flow result in higher feed water thermal duties which causes additional extraction flows and higher pump duty requirement. For 1% make up, approx 0.4% increase in THR and reduction of 0.2% on output can be observed for boiler blow down for saturated conditions at boiler drum pressure. Impact of Exhaust Pressure: Though increase or decrease in exhaust pressure affect the performance of turbine, by increasing or decreasing the heat rate, but no accurate thumb rule has been developed which would be valid for all cycles & turbines. However, actual turbine characteristics i.e. last stage blade design and exhaust area and unit size both do affect the impact of changing exhaust pressure on performance. Impact of Air Preheat: Preheating of combustion air by flue gas through regenerating air heaters improves boiler efficiency thereby lowering flue gas exit temp, but not below the acid dew point temp, to avoid formation of harmful sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid. To achieve this, an average cold end temp (ACET) in the regenerative air heater is maintained by preheating the air by passing it either through steam air preheating coil or hot water preheating coils drawn from LP extraction steam or turbine cycle as the case may be. The condensate thus collected after preheating is either pumped back to deaerator/condenser or to an intermediate LP feed water heater point through flash tank. Depending up on the unit load, a correction in THR is done for the specified percentage of combustion air preheating duty of cycle heat impact. Impact of condensate sub-cooling:- When condensate in hot well is cooled well below the saturation temp corresponding to turbine exhaust pressure, the duty of first feed water heater increases thereby causing enhanced extraction steam flow. For an approx 2.50 C sub cooling, when throttle flow beginning with 30%, is plotted against the % increase in THR, there is 0.001% increase in THR for every subsequent 10% increase in flow.
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Impact of RH & Superheater Spray flow: - To control the MS temp & RH temp, desuperheaters are provided which draw spray water either from discharge & inter stage or BFP respectively or from after the final feed water heater. These spray water adversely affect the THR when drawn from the BFP discharge. M S Spray evaporates in the boiler & becomes the part of the MS flow. Since this additional flow was less regenerative the THR is affected. Likewise R/H spray is also not only less regenerative but this additional flow by passes the HPT also. For every 1% of each de-superheating flow the correction for THR & load for varying % of VWO flow, has to be carried out as per curves supplied in the thermal kit by the turbine manufacturer. Impact of Wet-Bulb Temperature:- This has indirect effect on turbine cycle output as well as turbine heat rate. It is very difficult to accurately quantify the performance impact relationships to cover all possible cases, as it involves performance of evaporative cooling tower and turbine design performance features. For a typical 500 MW Reheat power plant, impacts up to 1.5% to 2% can occur on turbine heat rate and output due to change in wet bulb temperature. Impact of top heater out of service:- In the event of top heaters being taken out of service due to leakages or otherwise, the extraction steam flow meant for these heaters passes through turbine thereby increasing the output of turbine. At the same time the heat input to turbine is increased and final feed water temperature is lowered and THR becomes poor for the given throttle flow. This also causes larger steam flow in the last stage of LP turbine as well as through IPT. Thus, the turbine also needed to be checked up with manufacture to know its compatibility to cope up with this condition before permitting to take out top heaters from service in the regenerative heat cycle. Impact of HPH drain pump:- Normally at full /more than 50% load, the difference of pressure between HPH- 6&7 is sufficient enough to push the condensate to deaerator. Typically at around 50% load, pressure is not enough to drive this condensate (drip) to deaerator. Thus either HP heater drain pump is deployed for the purpose, or it is dumped in condensate hot well/ flashes it to next lower pressure heater. This way THR can be improved by 2.52 kCal/kWh for 50% load condition.
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Impact of type of BFP drive & flow controls:- Normally, any of the following four alternate BFP drive & control concepts are installed for the boiler feed water pumping to boiler drum. (a) Constant speed, motor driven BFP with throttle valve control; (b) Motor driven BFP with variable speed coupling control (c) Variable speed motor driven BFP (d) Turbine driven BFP

Both the bhp (Brake Horse Power) & net electric power consumption for the pump at a above is highest & lowest for the pump at d for 100% to 50% throttle flow. Likewise the net THR & net turbine output too reduces for the pump configuration a to d. Thus for the best turbine cycle heat rate and turbine output, the turbine drive BFP arrangement is the best as it improves the net THR & net turbine output by about 0.56% & 0.58% respectively for 100% throttle flow. Conclusion:Various design and operating parameters of a Thermal Power Plant are responsible for its cycle performance, heat rate and the output as well. Changes in these parameters are reflected by changes in steam cycle mass and energy balances. Therefore, these operating parameters need to monitored closely and kept as near as possible to the design parameters for optimized performance of various equipment and consequential economics in power generation. As such every accountable power plant engineer managing the operation of the unit is required to know these impacts, caused on account of off design operation of the plant, simply for the reason that the more efficient a plant works the more economically it is.

-----Note:- The values stated herein are indicative only. Ref.: 1. "Power Plant engineering" by Black & Veatch 2. " Power Plant Performance" by AB Gill