GAS TURBINE POWER PLANT

STEAM POWER PLANT

Flue gas Steam Steam turbine Alternator

Water Exahust Steam

GAS TURBINE POWER PLANT

Air-fuel mixture Gas turbine Alternator

Exhaust gas

OPEN CYCLE GAS TURBINE POWER PLANT

Air-fuel mixture Air Gas turbine Alternator

Exhaust air

CLOSED CYCLE GAS TURBINE POWER PLANT

In gas turbine plants:

1. Fuel used : Natural gas, diesel, kerosene, naptha , Solid fuels like low grade
coal may be used in a closed cycle plant
2. works at very high temperature of about 1400 oC, have smaller emission,
lower efficiency, shorter life
3. higher fuel cost per MWh and therefore generally employed to serve peak
loads.
TYPES OF GAS TURBINE POWER PLANTS

The gas turbine power plants can be classified

mainly into two categories. These are :open cycle
gas turbine power plant and closed cycle gas turbine
power plant.
Open Cycle Gas Turbine Power Plant In this type of
plant the atmospheric air is charged into the
combustor through a compressor and the exhaust of
the turbine also discharge to the atmosphere.
Closed Cycle Gas Turbine Power Plant In this type
of power plant, the mass of air is constant or
another suitable gas used as working medium,
circulates through the cycle over and over again.
3
OPEN CYCLE GAS TURBINE POWER PLANT

Combustion
chamber Exhaust air
540 oC
Air + Fuel
1650 oC
Compressor

Alternator
Gas turbine
Air 800 oC
4-6 atms

Starting
Excess compressed air motor
To load
air through transformer and circuit
breaker
Filter

Simple open cycle gas turbine plant

 Different components:
1. Filter : removes dust and dirt
2. Compressor: rotary type, compress air to a pressure of 4-6 atms.
As air flows into the compressor, energy is transferred from its
rotating blades to the air. Pressure and temperature of the air
increase.
3. Turbine: reaction type, non-condensing. The turbine acts like the
compressor in reverse with respect to energy transformation.
4. Combustion chamber The purpose of the combustor is to increase
the energy stored in the compressor exhaust by raising its
temperature.
5. Auxiliaries : lubricating oil pump, air filter, intercooler, re-cooler,
regenerator, recharger, storage batteries etc.

Developed Energy spent:

1. About 65% is utilized for driving the compressor
2. about 35% is available for transformation into electrical energy poor efficiency
Starting motor
Starting motor drives the establishes a
energized by storage batteries compressor steady air flow

Controlled fuel injection

at 20% of rated speed

gas-fuel mixture is ignited

and turbine starts to rotate

The starting motor accelerates

along with turbine

the gas turbine takes over at a speed of about

50% and starting motor is disengaged

System gradually attains rated speed and now gas turbine

drives both the compressor and the alternator
Measures adopted to improve the overall efficiency

Inter cooler

Gas turbines
(multistage)
Alternator Starting
motor
LP HP
HP LP

Compressors
(multistage) Reheater

Filter Combustion To load

chamber through transformer and
circuit breaker

Regenerator
Exhaust
gas

Improved open cycle gas turbine plant

Measures

1. Multi-stage compressor: an intercooler is introduced to reduce the volume of

air to be handled by the next compressor stage.
2. Multi-stage turbine: combustion gases HP turbine Reheater LP
turbine . In some cases HP turbine drives the compressor and LP turbine
drives the alternator. In such case speed of HP turbine may vary.
3. Reheater : a small combustion chamber to reheat the exhaust gas from HP
turbine to be used in LP turbine
4. Regenerator: a heat exchanger to heat the compressed air on its way to the
combustion chamber by exhaust gas from LP turbine.
Merits and demerits of Open Cycle Plant

Simple in design, small in size, light in weight, small warm-up time.

Erosion and corrosion of turbine blades, deposition of carbon and other foreign bodies in
combustion chamber, turbine, smaller life.
Close Cycle Gas Turbine plant

Inter cooler

Gas turbine Alternator Starting

motor
LP HP HP LP

Compressor
Reheater
fuel
Filter
Combustion To load
chambern through transformer and circuit
Recooler breaker

Regenerator

cooling
water Closed cycle gas turbine plant
 Additional component:
recooler: cools down the working medium and thus reduces the volume of gas to
be handled by the compressors.

Working medium and fuel:

Working medium : air, Hydrogen, Helium, neon, etc.
Fuel : low grade coal can also be used since the combustion products do not get mixed
with the working medium . Other fuels used in open cycle gas turbine plant may also be
used

Some merits :

1. Low grade coal can be used

2. The risk of erosion and corrosion or deposition of foreign bodies over the turbine
blades is absent
3. Working medium with superior properties (e.g., hydrogen with thermal conductivity
6.8 times that of air, with the benefit of reduced size of heat-exchangers) may be
employed.
4. The working medium may be maintained at relatively higher internal pressure and
thereby reducing size of the plant.
 COMBINED OPERATION OF POWER PLANTS
The basic aim of any power supply utility is to generate optimum amount of power
to meet the demand of the consumers and the losses in the system.
The amount of power to be generated has to be done at minimum cost so that while
selling it maximum relief can be given to the consumers.
Most of the large utilities have got different types of power plants viz. steam , hydro,
nuclear, gas etc. at its disposal. These power stations are interconnected together by
transmission lines so that power generated at any plant can be routed to meet the
consumer demand at any location within the utility. Combined operation of the
different power plants help the utility to allocate a generation schedule to every
power plant at any time so that the total demand is properly meet.
Combined operation of power plants have the following advantages:-
1. Greater reliability of power supply to the consumers.
2. The overall cost of generation per unit energy is reduced.
3. Capital investment for building power station is less.
4. Greater use of transmission facilities within the system.

MdM, EE, JU
 LOAD CURVE

Power demand in a system changes time to time during the course of a day a
month or a year depending on consumer choice. A graphical plot of these
demands for every hour of a day is called a load curve.
This gives the power utility an idea about how to vary its generation schedule
during any part of the day. The peak value of this load curve is called peak
demand. Fig below shows a typical daily load curve where peak demand is
2000 MW.

Fig 1

MdM, EE, JU
 LOAD DURATION CURVE
Compiling the daily load curves throughout the year a new curve can be plotted
which indicates the average demands during certain hours in a year. This is a
descending nature of curve , where the scale of abscissa is calibrated either in
total hours in a year (8760) or in its percentage taking 8760 as 100 %.
Fig below shows a typical load duration curve as obtained from fig 1, where peak
demand exists for 3 hours in a day . This daily load duration curve can be
converted to yearly load duration curve by taking certain average. This again
will be a descending type of curve with arbitrary variations as shown in fig 3.

Fig 2 Fig 3
MdM, EE, JU
 LOAD SHARING BETWEEN POWER STATIONS

It is evident from the yearly load duration curve that certain amount of load exists even
not throughout the year but for a large part of the year. This is called base load of
the system.
On the other hand some amount of load has to be catered for small time durations every
day which call for additional power generation for small periods of time. This is
called peak load of the system.
From economic considerations it is advisable to cater for the base load by operating
those power plants which involve a higher capital cost, but lower running costs.
Power stations of this type are run off river hydro plants , steam power plants and
nuclear power plants.
On the contrary the storage and pumped storage type hydro plants , gas turbine and
diesel fired power plants are more suitable for catering peak load as they involve
low capital cost but sometimes high running costs.

MdM, EE, JU
 CHARACTERISTICS/REQUIREMENTS FOR BASE LOAD STATIONS

1. Low Running Cost.

2. Generation capacity should be maintained almost steady.
3. Low maintenance cost or high capital cost.
4. Located near load centre.
5. Starting and stopping requires long time.
6. Adequate fuel supply.

MdM, EE, JU
 CHARACTERISTICS/REQUIREMENTS FOR PEAK LOAD STATIONS

1. High running cost.

2. Preferably low capital cost.
3. Flexibility and easy control of generation capacity.
4. Quick starting and stopping operation.
5. Several small capacity units are preferred.

MdM, EE, JU
 OPTIMUM OPERATION OF POWER PLANTS

A power supply company having different types of power plants at its

disposal can optimize their generation schedules for different plants by
studying the load duration curve (Fig. 3).
Let an arbitrary horizontal line be drawn separating base load and
peak load regions which is deemed to be optimum sharing.
let the annual operating cost of the plants be
C1 a1 b1.db e1.Eb (for base stations)
C2 a2 b2 .d p e2 .E p (for peak stations)

where
a1 and a2 are the fixed costs.
b1 and b2 are costs per unit of energy generated in MW.
e1 and e2 are costs per unit of energy generated in MWh.
Then, total operating cost,
C=C1 + C2 = a1 + a2 + b1.db + b2.dp + e1.Eb + e2.Ep
Let now the share of power generated by base station be increased by a small
amount d considering new optimum sharing of load.
The new operating cost would be,
Cn=C1 + C2 = a1 + a2 + b1.(db +d)+ b2.(dp d)+ e1.(Eb +d.h)+ e2.(Ep d.h)
Considering our earlier cost to be minimum, Cn C=0
(b1-b2).d + (e1-e2).dh=0
Or , h = b1-b2/e2-e1
Thus the peak load stations should operate h hours in a year only for overall
cost to be minimum.
It is to be noted that b1>b2 as capital cost for base stations are generally
more and e1<e2 as running cost for base stations are usually less. So h will
always be a positive quantity.
 STAND-ALONE SYSTEM

In remote and sparsely populated areas it is not economically viable to

transmit power from distant place. In such cases small amount of power
may be generated by small power stations. These are called stand-alone
systems. Application of nonconventional sources of energy is advisable
here. These include Wind power, Solar power, Tidal power, Bio-mass
energy etc. Where power may be available for few hours in a day. This may
serve the purpose of lighting, cooking, water pumping etc for the
neighboring community.