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A Clean and Efficient Supercritical

Circulating Fluidised Bed Power Plant

Patrick LAFFONT
ALSTOM Power
Plant Segment (France)
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Jacques BARTHELEMY
ALSTOM Power
Boilers & Environment Segment (France)
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Brendon SCARLIN
ALSTOM Power
Turbomachinery Segment (Switzerland)
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Christian KERVENEC
ALSTOM Power
I&C Plant Segment (France)
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1. INTRODUCTION

The European power generation mix is well balanced among the different energy sources as
illustrated on the pie chart below:

Figure 1: Electricity production in the European Union

Such a mix is of course very good from the electricity supply and security points of view.

One major challenge in the short and medium terms for the power generation companies is to
adapt their power plant portfolio to the changing environment:
market liberalisation and strong electricity price competition,
more stringent emission limits on SO2, NOx, particles and heavy metal,
Kyoto target on CO2 emissions,
growing electricity demand,
ageing plants, which have to be decommissioned within ten years.

Moreover at the European level it is necessary to achieve the fuel supply security and a
sustainable development. Thanks to abundant reserves and low price volatility coal will
remain a major player in the European fuel mix. As a consequence, power plant equipment
suppliers and EPC Companies have to develop new products and new power plant designs to
meet these new needs.

2. MAIN PLANT FEATURES

During the nineties a clear trend emerged, mainly in Europe and Japan, where most large coal
fired units built were based on supercritical steam conditions. Chart 2 shows that there has
been a continuous improvement in efficiency due to the increase in the steam parameters
thanks to the use of 9-10% Cr material which became available.
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Figure 2: Plant Efficiency Development

The cycle efficiency has been improved while keeping the cost of electricity at a competitive
level. One major consequence has been to reduce the plant emissions, especially CO2 gases.
In the second half of the nineties a different trend appeared in the US where a lot of coal fired
orders were based on the CFB technology. The main advantage of this is its intrinsic low
level of SO2 or NOx emission, as well as its fuel flexibility, which enables the plant operator
to have a larger fuel supply base and the EPC Company to increase the degree of power plant
standardisation.

Combining the supercritical technology and the CFB technology allows profiting from the
benefits of both. As well as improving the economics of the concept it is necessary to lower
the investment costs; the possible routes are:
using pre-engineered plant concepts based on modular design,
implementing cost-effective solutions for each main module,
using each module at its upper range of application in terms of output.

The last lever available to increase the profitability of the power plant is to exhibit good
operating records. One solution is to provide the plant operator with tools to monitor the main
equipment and optimise the plant operation.

The objective of this paper is to present a pre-designed coal fired plant featuring a single
reheat supercritical cycle and composed of a Circulating Fluidised Bed boiler, a reheat steam

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turbine with one lateral exhaust LP casing and plant control tools. It will also show its ability
to produce electricity at a competitive cost, and to meet the environmental regulations.

3. STEAM CYCLE OPTIMISATION

The single reheat option has been selected since it is the cost-effective solution for most of
the project economic data. The main steam water cycle parameters that have an impact on
heat rate are (see fig 3): the live steam pressure and temperature, reheat temperature, final
feed water temperature, condenser pressure (which is site-specific).

Figure 3: Relative efficiency improvement (reference subcritical cycle)

Naturally, this increase in the steam parameters has an impact on the design of some pressure
parts of the boiler, the main pipes and some the steam turbine components. Thanks to the
introduction of new creep resistant materials it has been possible to increase the steam
parameters compared with the traditional 250bar/540°C/565°C used during the 60’s. The
steam parameter increase has an impact on the investment costs, since more expensive
materials are used for the hot parts and pressure parts of the plant. Therefore it is necessary to
minimise the cost of electricity and find the optimum solution using different sets of cycle
data as parameters. For this optimisation the following cycle parameters were selected among
those which are possible with today’s available materials and which have demonstrated very
effective operating performance and technology maturity:
Boiler outlet conditions FFWT
Cycle 1 (ref.) 265 bar 553°C / 571°C 290°C
Cycle 2 270 bar 583°C / 601°C/ 290°C
Cycle 3 290 bar 603°C / 621°C 300°C

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The main economic data selected for the optimisation are:

a plant size of 600 MW, a fuel price of 1.8€/ 106 kJ,
a plant life of 25 years, a present value rate of 10%.
an equivalent full load operation of 7000 hours,

The influence of each component on the price is summarised in the table below:
Cycle 1 ( ref) Cycle 2 Cycle 3
Boiler Ref. +4.6% +9.5%
Steam Turb/ generator Ref. +1.3% +3%
Mechanical equipment Ref. +1.8% +5.6%
Electrical equipment Ref. ~0 % ~0.6%
Civil Works Ref. ~0% ~0%
Investment Cost €/kW Ref. +0.2% +1.6%

It should be mentioned that the investment data for cycle 3 suffer from the limited use of P92
material, which does not benefit from the volume effect of P91. The Cost of Electricity,
which combines investment increase and efficiency increase, has been used as a metric to
compare the different cycles. The main input data and their influence on the cost of electricity
are summarised in the table below. In the comparison the same plant availability has been
taken, which is in total agreement with the operating feedback from the supercritical units
commissioned in the 90’s. (see note1).
Reference Cycle 1 Cycle 2 Cycle 3
Investment Cost (€/kW) Ref. +0.2% +1.6%
Efficiency increase Ref. 1.9% 3.5%
Equivalent full load hours of operation 7000h
Cost of Electricity (CoE) Ref. - 0.7 % - 0.7 %

It appears that increasing the steam parameters to those of cycle 2 reduces the CoE by around
0.7 %. There is however no major improvement with higher steam parameters (cycle 3).
A sensitivity analysis on fuel price (see figure 4) demonstrates that:
for high fuel prices (above 1.8 €/106 kJ), cycle 3 is more competitive and one could
expect a reduction of this threshold when P92 material becomes more widely used,
in the low fuel range, cycle 2 is more competitive and less sensitive than cycle 3.
As a conclusion, cycle 2 (270 bar 583°C/601°C/ FFWT 290°C) is today the best choice.

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This successful operating experience can be explained first of all by the quality of the design and then by the
optimised combined feedwater treatment.

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COE %

CYCLE REFERENCE 1
0

-0,5

-1

CYCLE 2
-1,5
CYCLE 3

-2
Coal price € / GJ
0,9 1,8 2,7

Figure 4: Fuel price sensitivity analysis

The efficiency increase not only reduces the cost of electricity but also reduces the CO2
emissions. Thus, such a supercritical power plant is a mature and proven technology, which
can significantly contribute to the CO2 emission reduction program since the average
European coal fired plant efficiency is around 35% LHV. Moreover, the implementation of a
CO2 tax improves the economics of such a supercritical cycle: a 10 €/t CO2 tax, for example,
has the same effect on the CoE as a 1 €/GJ increase in the fuel price, which can be assessed
on the graph above. Furthermore this technology is compatible with some CO2 capture
technologies, which are under development.

4 CFB SUPERCRITICAL 600 MW CLASS BOILER

4.1 Environmental considerations

The European Community regulations impose well-known emissions limits:

SO2 NOx Particles
EC emission limits 200 mg / Nm3 200 mg / Nm3 30 mg / Nm3

While emission particles are easily taken care of by efficient ESPs or bag filters, the SO2 and
NOx emissions are reduced exclusively by primary measures, i.e. without any back-end
cleaning equipment such as FGD or SCR systems. The experience gained by ALSTOM on
various CFBs demonstrates that these low SO2 and NOx levels can be achieved. There is no
reason to believe that the scale up to 600 MW will change the environmental efficiency of the
CFB design. ALSTOM technology is based on a highly efficient separation system composed
of cyclones and their inlet ducts. The latter is designed to accelerate and pre-separate the
particles before entering the cyclone itself.

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The ALSTOM design allows the recirculation of very fine particles, thus increasing the bed
inventory. This, in turn has several favourable consequences:

High heat and mass transfer, thus avoiding the creation of hot spots in the bed that are
detrimental to reducing NOx emissions. In this respect, homogeneity of the bed
temperature is critical.

High level of heat pick up in the furnace.

High level of sulphur capture by the limestone injected in the furnace.

An international steam coal containing 0.8 % sulphur would lead to a required 90% sulphur
capture efficiency.

ALSTOM's experience demonstrates that efficiencies in excess of 97% can be achieved

without any problem, thus allowing the firing of high sulphur cheap fuels, while keeping the
SO2 emissions below the 200 mg/Nm3 mark. Likewise, NOx emissions below 200 mg/Nm3
are guaranteed thanks to the efficiency of the separation system and to the very accurate
control of the bed temperature allowed by the Fluid Bed Heat Exchanger (FBHE).

Based on the operational success of existing large CFBs, ALSTOM has developed a
conceptual design for the next generation of CFB units, with a rating up to 600 MW, and
utilising supercritical parameters and therefore once-through technology. Experience gained
by ALSTOM on a large number of PC Once-Through units has also been extensively used.
The main design features are:

a single furnace of "pant-leg" type, water walls of vertical tubing type to avoid erosion,

6 steam cooled high efficiency cyclones of circular shape,

4 external heat exchangers,

1 steam cooled cyclone outlet duct for each set of three cyclones,

1 tubular air heater for fluidising air, regenerative air heaters for primary & secondary air.

ALSTOM has attempted to reduce to the bare minimum the quantity of refractory, in order to
minimise their weight and their maintenance as well as to avoid heat accumulation, a difficult
problem with once through boilers in case of sudden shutdown: hence the decision to tube the
cyclone and main gas duct protected only by a thin layer of refractory.

In order to minimise the technical risks, ALSTOM has systematically applied the
methodology of scaling up (existing proven solutions) to a reasonable factor.

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This design has been based on the selection of standard international steam coal as a fuel.
This coal has a 26 500 kJ/kg high heating value, and contains 7.5 % moisture, 14 % ash and
0.8 % sulphur. The boiler, sized on the basis of 100% above reference coal can also burn
without any modification up to 30 % petroleum coke or 45 % oil pitch together with coal. If
the sulfer content in coal is higher than 0.8% , the power station will still be able to maintain
adequate SO2 emission levels by simply increasing the limestone consumption.

Fig. 5 : 600 MW CFB boiler

4.2 600 MW CFB size - Scale up principles

Priority in scale up has been given to selection of features individually demonstrated or

having reference in similar conditions in already existing CFBs or PC boilers, deliberately
minimising the unproven concepts. The key scale up principle was to extrapolate in one
dimension only the pant-leg furnace of Provence (175 m2 cross section, 15m width) or Red
Hills and combine it with the experience gained from ALSTOM’s 3-cyclone units with a
stretched furnace width of more than 24m. By this principle the required furnace section
(around 300 m2) for the 600 MWe unit is fully covered by the current experience.
The arrangement of solids returns from cyclones was designed as to obtain a regular
distribution over the furnace wall, close to solids return from FBHE, in order to promote a
thorough mixing of solids at different temperatures, to get a high level of bed temperature
homogeneity. A "pant leg" furnace was selected, especially suitable for proper secondary air
jets penetration, even in the centre of the furnace cross section. Two fluidising grates are
therefore provided, each of a size very close to the ones used on the 250 MW 3-cyclones
CFBs built by ALSTOM at Tonghae (Korea) or Guyama (Puerto Rico).

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Based on proven cyclone diameter performances, with several plants in operation having
cyclones with more than 8m inner diameter, a 6-cyclones (8.3 m diameter) arrangement was
selected, leading to 6 siphon seals returning captured solids to the furnace pant leg bottom.
Typically 6 fuel feeding points are located in the siphon seals. This relatively reduced number
of feeding points results from a specific process approach with fine bed due to high
performance cyclones, and high solids furnace inventory.
The superheaters and reheaters surfaces are arranged in FBHEs, in the furnace and in the
back pass, taking advantage of FBHE capability to adjust furnace temperature for optimum
sulfur capture and for the various fuels, and to adjust reheated steam temperature, without
spray requirement. The arrangement of connecting ducts between the 6 cyclones and the back
pass has been optimised for compactness. A particular emphasis has been given to minimise
refractory, through the extensive use of cooled casing surfaces and to minimise expansion
joints, 2 well-known maintenance intensive aspects.
For a more detailed description of the adaptation of once-through design to CFB boilers, the
reader is invited to refer to the ALSTOM paper entitled, “Scale-up of CFB Technology to the
Utility Class: Evolution of Clean, Efficient Power Generation," which ALSTOM is also
presenting at this conference.

4.3 Cyclones arrangement

The 6-cyclone architecture presents special challenges for cyclones capture performances,
leading to a specific study of solids distribution over 3 cyclones running in parallel.
Experience on 2- and 4-cyclones furnace arrangement has shown that the geometrical
symmetry ensures a rather equal solids feeding to each cyclone. With 2- or 4-cyclones
arrangement there is no potential for a weak cyclone, having a higher solids leakage
(especially for fine particles), that could lead to process disadvantages in terms of carbon
burn out or limestone consumption by the reduction of solids residence time in the furnace
loop. On the other hand, CFB boilers with 3-cyclones arrangement and grate length around
20 m are in operation for capacity range of 200 – 250 MW (single bottom design) with
acceptable unbalance flows.
Key issues to address in the 6-cyclones arrangement were: first, to quantify and minimise the
solids flow unbalance between the centre cyclone and the 2 adjacent cyclones; and second, to
optimise the cyclone inlet duct relative to the furnace to ensure that incoming solids from the
furnace are collected correctly through the inlet ducts.

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The solids flow unbalance between cyclones is of particular interest, since captured solids are
partly diverted to FBHE for heat transfer purposes. The main tools used for investigations
have been 2 different cold CFB models. High importance has been given to hydrodynamic
similarities, in order to simulate properly industrial conditions (furnace void fraction of the
HUCHET unit for example), and fractional collection efficiency of cyclones. Tests were
carried out for various tests conditions, with and without process disturbances, at various
loads. As examples of test conditions, the pressure drop impact of the primary air fluidising
grid, the possibility of unbalanced primary air supply, and the location of the solids return in
the bottom furnace were investigated. Testing indicated there was negligible flow imbalance
between cyclones.

4.4 FBHE arrangement

The Fluid Bed Heat Exchangers fed from 6 cyclones are scaled-up based on ALSTOM’s
FBHE experience. The choice of scale-up of the external bed size is primarily based on
economics in order to increase the cost-effective surfaces of straight elements inside the bed
compared to all other less cost-effective surfaces like bends, out of bed tubes, and enclosures.
Scale-up was governed by ALSTOM’s experience in large size bubbling beds, of individually
fluidised FBHE grates and keeping within the relative solids ash flows measured in different
FBHEs of ALSTOM’s CFB reference plants. The related issues concern the solids flow
distribution differences in extrapolated FBHE chambers, with particular emphasis on solids
flow bypass above partitions and solids distribution over weir width. Again an experimental
test program, using 2 cold bubbling models, was carried out:
a 2D-model (120 mm wide) for qualitative stream identifications. This model is a
geometrical 2 D replica of a FBHE High Temperature Reheater.
a 3D-model for quantitative mapping (solids velocity).

Various geometries of inlet chamber and partition profile can be easily simulated.

4.5 Components aspects

4.5.1 General

The once-through circulation system fits quite well with the CFB architecture, by combining
economiser, furnace, cyclones, convective pass and FBHEs, in a logical arrangement.

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The total masses of refractory and the number of expansion joints are minimised. Thus
minimising their cost in terms of outages and related repair or maintenance.

4.5.2 Cooled cyclones

The cooled cyclone design is based on cyclone design of the ZERAN B power plant in
Warszaw, which went into operation in 2001 showing very positive operational results. The
plant, which was built by RAFAKO, is using ALSTOM’s CFB technology and the most
advanced cyclone design. The 2 cyclone inlet ducts, as well as the cyclones, with an inner
diameter of more than 8.0m, are cooled by steam, forming the first superheater stage. For the
600 MWe supercritical plant only slight adjustments had to be performed. Additional studies
were performed, to optimise the variable fin width and to reduce the intermediate steam
headers quantity required.

4.5.3 Cooled cyclone overflow ducts

The arrangement and tubing of the 2 outlet ducts, each combining the gas flow from 3
cyclone and leading to the back pass, have been design challenges. A novel cost effective
and compact geometry has been developed using thorough CFD simulations to ensure that
the gas flow through all cyclones is equal and to yield an even approach flow into the back-
pass. Consequently temperature unbalance at the inlet of the rear pass between the
superheater banks could be further minimised. The overflow ducts are cooled by the
superheated steam coming from the cyclones and the ducts are protected by a thin layer of
aluminum-based refractory. Thus the radiation into the backpass during shutdown and
blackout conditions is small in comparison to conventional ducts with thick refractory lining.

4.5.4 Pressure parts materials

The heat transfer arrangement was selected to allow the use of conventional boiler materials,
even in FBHE, despite the advanced steam parameters of 275 bar and 600°C. The furnace
tubing itself, taking advantage of the moderate furnace heat flux, required no special material,
compared to any other boiler having the steam parameters. Rifled tubing need not to be used
for the furnace water walls, since detailed investigation has proved that they improve the
cooling of the tubes only slightly. This effect is due to the rather low heat flux in CFB
furnaces in comparison to PC fired furnaces.

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Thus the furnace walls can be manufactured from conventional smooth tubes in parallel
arrangement. The required materials for the SH and RH fluid bed heat exchangers have
already been used in existing ALSTOM CFB plants.

5 STEAM TURBINE TECHNOLOGY

The main design features of the HP turbine section of a high temperature supercritical plant
are shown in fig 6. The proven design principles of this turbine series can be applied without
modification. Only the inner casing, valve bodies and middle rotor section are manufactured
from the new 10%Cr steel developed and validated in the European Cost programmes.

Figure 6: Longitudinal section through HP turbine

Since the steam expands and cools in the direction of the rotor ends, a low alloyed 1%CrMoV
steel can be used in these regions. Because of the good running properties of this steel there is
no need for overlay welding of the rotor journals. The weld between the high-alloyed and
low-alloyed steel is made using conventional methods and filler metals. Operating loads and
temperatures do not exceed the usual present day values.
Additional advantages of the welded rotor are:
simplicity and accuracy of non-destructive testing,
wide selection of forging suppliers,
uniformity of mechanical properties and high toughness.
An advantage for medium-load operation results from the rotationally symmetrical inner
casing constructed with a shrink-ring connection. Uniform wall thickness minimises
mechanical and thermal loads. The shrink rings are located in the low temperature HP
exhaust steam so that the shrinkage force is always maintained.

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The diffusers pass the steam from the inlet valves to the HP turbine. They are of free-
expanding type and have piston-ring sealing elements in the inner casing. They are also
cooled by HP exhaust steam. The advantage is that no part of the outer casing is exposed to
the live steam temperature. Hence the HP extraction required to optimise the thermodynamic
process can be achieved with very little effort. This extraction concept has already been
employed in many power plants.

The IP turbine also operates with a high inlet temperature. Despite this the entire design
concept can be used without alteration. Again only the inner casing, valve bodies and middle
rotor section are manufactured from the new 10%Cr steels. The halves of the inner casing are
held together by bolts, which are cooled by exhaust steam from the IP turbine. They can be
manufactured from the usual steels since their temperature does not exceed 500°C.

On the cold end side of the expansion the condenser pressure combined with the plant net
output give the number of low pressure flows which are necessary to limit the leaving losses.

For European cooling conditions on cooling tower it is possible to achieve a plant net output
in the range of 400MW with 2 low-pressure flows with steel blade last stage blade and up to
550MW with the same number of LP flows but with a titanium last stage blade.

The 49-inch titanium last stage blade for 50Hz application has been developed
based on long operation experience with such large blades. The selected
bimodal Ti6Al4V alloy offers a favourable strength & ductility combination
and has already wide references in aero-engines and steam turbines.
The blade is fixed on the rotor with a straight 4-hook fir-tree root attachment .
The blades are connected to each other with an integral shroud and snubber
which come into contact when the airfoil untwist under the effect of the
centrifugal forces. At rated speed generates the contact forces between
adjacent shrouds and snubbers a continuously coupled blade row, which
provide sufficient stiffness and additional damping.

Fig 7: 3D view of the titanium last stage blade

The most important measures to protect the moving blade leading edge against erosion are
increased axial distances between stationary and moving blade, airfoil water extraction at the

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stationary blade, casing water extraction between stationary and moving blade cavity and
extended leading edge.

6 LATERAL EXHAUST PRE-ENGINEERED POWER PLANT CONCEPT

The design of a power plant is a challenge, as engineers have to combine the various
customer needs and the benefits of standardisation. The tailor-made approach is expensive
and time-consuming and although it perfectly fits the customer needs, it cannot produce a
competitive design. On the contrary, the theoretical cost-effective approach of a fully
standardised reference plant is not realistic since adaptations to site specifics and customer
needs are necessary. The optimal route is therefore to use the benefit and method of
standardisation as much as possible while remaining flexible enough to fit with the reality of
each project. To that end, it is of paramount importance to use pre-engineered solutions for
each major system of the power plant which is critical to the success of the project, and to
allow a high degree of flexibility for the systems that are more site-specific. In the table
below the major systems of the plant have been classified according to the main critical
success factors of the project and their dependence on the project specifics:

High Low
Impact on performance (efficiency, Boiler & Flue gas Treatment
Balance of Plant
emission, availability) Turbine Hall

Impact on time schedule Boiler & Flue gas Treatment

Balance of Plant
Turbine Hall
Impact on investment Boiler & Flue gas Treatment
Balance of Plant
Turbine Hall
Impact of site conditions Boiler & Flue gas Treatment
Balance of Plant
Turbine Hall

It appears clearly that the core of the plant consists of the boiler with its flue gas treatment,
and the turbine hall, which represents a significant portion of the total investment cost, and
where integration is of great importance for the plant performance and project program.
Thus, using a pre-engineered power block it is possible to benefit from standardisation, i.e.:
lower investment cost,
project execution feedback,
reduced and secured project execution,
integrated solutions, beneficial to project execution and plant performance.
The next possible step to reduce the investment cost is to make an optimised design of each
power block and as much as possible promote its use in the upper field of its range of

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application. Thanks to the long last stage blade portfolio developed by ALSTOM, as
explained above, it is possible to use a 3-casing steam turbine in the range of 400 MW-
600 MW with only one LP casing depending on the condenser pressure for 50 Hz
applications. Based on this 3-casing turbine structure, the pre-engineered turbine hall has
been developed featuring a steam turbine with lateral exhaust arrangement. The benefits of
this concept are savings on the turbine hall civil works, building height and steel structure.
In addition, the lateral exhaust concept reduces the impact of the condenser’s size variation
on the turbine hall design dramatically since the condenser is outdoors thus allowing a highly
standardised design of the turbine hall. _ see fig 8.

Figure 8 : Lateral exhaust arrangement

Lastly, it has intrinsic benefits for the project construction program, as it allows simultaneous
construction activities without interference. This higher flexibility is a major advantage for
the whole plant lead-time. The relative position between the boiler and turbine hall has been
optimised to reduce the HP piping length. For the “balance of plant” a highly flexible solution
is necessary to fit the various project specifics. To that end, modular pre-engineered buildings
have been chosen for the main site auxiliaries such as the water treatment plant and the
electrical buildings.

7 PLANT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

The use of a state-of-the-art Plant Automation System that integrates enhanced DCS and
machine control functions combined with advanced plant management and remote
observation/maintenance functions contributes to facilitate plant operation and maintenance

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in a significant way, hence reducing the cost of plant availability loss. As an example, 0.5%
plant availability deterioration for the whole life of a 500 MW plant has a level value in the
range of 3M€ - this figure could be higher depending on the real electricity market.

ALSPA P320 Advanced functions for operation and maintenance

The ALSPA, the Plant Automation System of ALSTOM Power, offers advanced functions to
help operators controlling and managing their plant as safely as possible under all operating
conditions. Among those advanced functions, the on-line operating instructions, alarm
instructions and automatic sequences will be detailed below. These functionalities have
already been implemented in a large number of plants, including the coal-fired plants of
Hoping (2x660MW), Sual (2x600MW) and Laibin (2x360MW).
Plant operators are safely and efficiently guided throughout the operation by on-line
instructions dedicated to each operating step and condition such as plant start-up, shutdown,
trip, incident, maintenance, etc., hence reducing risks of failure or trip on the machines. These
instruction documents are produced, based on HTML, by mechanical and electrical engineers
in a homogeneous way over the complete plant, thus offering operators the ability to operate
their plant in a user-friendly and safe way.
On-line alarm instructions are provided for operators to address any event occurring during
operation. They describe the type of event, identify the root causes, and determine the
possible consequences induced, anticipate and recommend the actions to be implemented by
operators for clearing up the situation and avoiding unit trip. This contributes to increase
plant availability and profitability. Operating costs can consequently be reduced in a
significant way.
The functions detailed above are completely embedded within the plant automation system in
a flexible way. The HTML documents can incorporate static texts, dynamic values or partial
mimics drawing, as well as push buttons to open a mimic view or send an order to the process
for example; as such it constitutes a valuable assistance tool that eases operators’ decision.
The automatic sequences defined within the automation cell based on P320 engineering
experience and expertise gives operators the possibility to carry out automatic and co-
ordinated start-up and shutdown sequences of unit equipment.
In addition to that, the sequence-monitoring module provides the human-machine interface
used for the observation and analysis of sequences executed by the P320 automation cell. A
sequence is a series of several successive operations, known as steps, performed on process
equipment. They are performed in a given order as a function of the presence of logic criteria.

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The sequence monitoring function is used to display the progression of the sequence in real
time on a step by step basis. Sequence steps are recorded in the historical logs.
The sequence monitoring view used to display the progression of the sequence is composed
of different tabs representing the sequence steps, the sequence start and stop criteria, the
blocking conditions and the properties of the sequence. In addition, this view displays the
state of the sequence, the sequence mode, the number of the active step and all the timeouts
associated to the group and to the active step. This powerful automatic sequence-monitoring
module provides plant operators with user-friendly and efficient monitoring and analysis
functionalities that contribute to higher reliability during these transient phases.

ALSPA P320 Plant Control Optimisation

The P320 control system is designed to provide all the features required for measuring and
improving the competitiveness of modern operators. Using this Plant Automation System as
framework, a comprehensive range of uniquely developed packages has been put together to
supply the very large amount of information needed to procure optimum plant performance.
Information is classified in three main areas:
Plant Performance: Efficiency, Environment, Availability, Plant start-up management,
Plant Management: Life cycle, Dynamic conditions, Alarm management, MIS
(Management Information System), Operating documents, Asset Management
(instruments), Remote HMI & data access…
Commercial Management: Fuel costs, O&M costs, Contractual compliance…
The plant automation system offers standard functions in each of the three areas along with a
range of optional packs, which can be integrated to meet customers O&M needs.

AMODIS Typical functions for plant performances and operation optimisation

To satisfy customer needs, optimisation modules are provided as part of the P320 control
system, complemented with specialised AMODIS modules (ALSTOM Monitoring and
Diagnosis System) that strive:
Generating power at most efficient cost :
- Improving plant heat-rate and auxiliaries power consumption
- Reducing emissions (NOx, SOx, particles) within mandatory limits
- Managing transient phases (start-up, shut down, minimum load)
Improving plant availability by reducing forced outages

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Mitigating component failure risk by an early detection of ageing / deterioration.

For a coal-fired plant, a large range of AMODIS modules is available, as shown here below:
- Shaftline vibration
Overall plant - Performance tool with data validation
- Steam water cycle optimisation
- Performance tool
Boiler - Advanced soot blowing
- Water wall temperature monitoring
- Performance optimisation
Steam turbine - Life time module
- Shaft voltages and / or currents
- Partial discharges
Generator - Stator end winding vibrations
- Stator bar temperatures
- Rotor stray flux monitoring

Main benefits for the plant operators are:

Providing Operation & Maintenance decision support
Improving operation cost by detecting potential optimisations
Enhancing multiple components and units management efficiency
Providing basis for condition based maintenance
Minimising risk of unplanned outages.

ALSPA P320 Training Simulator

Improved operator competence is a key factor of plant productivity optimisation as it helps
reducing the number of spurious shutdowns and process disturbances (fully checking out
control systems prior to start up), downtime due to operational errors, trips by handling of
abnormal or critical situations and maintenance costs, thus improving overall plant reliability.
The training simulator is a full replica of the control system of the power plant, which allows
operators to be trained safely and efficiently in exactly the same conditions of operation as in
the control room (same Human Machine Interface, same look & feel, etc.); real-time
simulation of the process and open & closed control loops is achieved, training is performed
on the exact operating procedures, and accurate automation models are provided for
reproduction of the actual process behaviour. Maximum training effectiveness and
adaptability is thus ensured, trainees gain the skills necessary to increase plant performance,
minimise downtime, and provide confident emergency response.
Characterised by a user-friendly and open instructor interface, the training simulator is
intended for instructors who do not need to be thermodynamics or computer specialists. A
full set of instructions is available: Run/Freeze, Record, Replay, Malfunctions, Scenarios;

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thus any scenario, no matter how complex or dangerous in a real plant, can be repeated,
monitored and varied in real-time. It provides operators with the means of not only learning
unit normal operation, but also managing disruptive situations and experiencing malfunction
conditions all this without affecting the plant production and availability, hence preventing all
risks for the machines.
The training simulator both offers new operators an excellent training and procedure
development platform that allows them to get hands-on experience before the plant is built,
and provides the ability to keep skills of experienced operators fresh by means of refresher
courses to maintain the required level of competence, efficiently cope with the complexity of
new technologies, and maintain plants on the competitive edge with respect to today's
challenges.
Benefits for plant operators range from achievement of smoother plant operation with fewer
process disturbances, provision of a state of the art study platform for process improvements,
gain in greater profits from optimised plant operation. The best return on investment is then
guaranteed while improving productivity and quality, and ensuring personnel / plant safety.

The training simulator benefits from an outstanding experience in power generation process
that guarantees process model high fidelity (availability of a complete coal-fired 600MW
plant simulator package). Some of the most recent realisations in coal-fired power plants are
Sual - 2*600 MW, Laibin - 2*360 MW and Hoping - 2*660 MW.

9 CONCLUSION ( ~HALF A PAGE)

Fig 9: Hoping training simulator screenshot 19

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8 SUMMARY

By integrating the best available technologies today it is possible to bring on the market a
pre-engineered design of a 500MW class coal fired plant with the following features:
Optimised supercritical cycle ( 270b - 580°C/600°C FFWT 290°C)
Supercritical CFB boiler for which a detailed boiler design for up to 600 MWe CFB is
now ready for first implementation
A three casing supercritical steam turbine with a titanium last stage blade used in upper
range of output
pre-engineered power block based on turbine hall with lateral exhaust
plant management system embedded in the DCS to improve plant operation record and
profitability

Thus, this pre-engineered 500MW coal fired plant can meet the present market requirement:
competitive cost of electricity, with a limited sensitivity to fuel market volatility
stringent emission limits

In addition this plant concept, based on proven technology, can contribute immediately to the
CO2 emission reduction program to meet the Kyoto target while maintaining the European
fuel supply security. Moreover it is compatible with some CO2 capture technology which can
be implemented when they will be ready for industrial application.

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