A REPORT OF THE VOCATIONAL

TRAINING
at
MEJIA THERMAL POWER STATION
P.O. MEJIA, DIST. BANKURA
WEST BENGAL-722183
OF
DAMODAR VALLEY
CORPORATION
(D.V.C.)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The dissertation has been prepared based on the vocational training

undergone in a highly esteemed organisation of Eastern region, a pioneer in
Generation Transmission & Distribution of power, one of the most
technically
advanced & largest thermal power stations in India , the Mejia Thermal
Power Station (M.T.P.S), under DVC.
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the authorities of Mejia
Thermal Power Station for providing us such an
opportunity to undergo training in the thermal power plant of DVC, MTPS.
I would also like to thank the Engineers, highly experienced without whom
such type of concept building in respect of thermal power plant would not
have been possible. Some of them are:
1) Mr. Parimal Kumar Dubey
2)
G Nandesu

INTRODUCTION

Damodar Valley Corporation was established on 7th July

1948.It is the most reputed company in the eastern zone of
India. DVC in established on the Damodar River. It
alsoconsists of the Durgapur Thermal Power Plant in
Durgapur. The MTPS under the DVC is the second largest
thermal plant in West Bengal. Mejia Thermal Power Station
also known as MTPS is located in the outskirts of Raniganj in
Bankura District. It is one of the 5 Thermal Power Stations
of Damodar Valley Corporation in the state of West Bengal.
The total power plant campus area is surrounded by
boundary walls and is basically divided into two major
parts, first the Power Plant area itself and the second is the
Colony area for the residence and other facilities for MTPS ss
employees.

TECHNICAL
SPECIFICATION OF MTPS

INSTALLED CAPACITY: 1) Total number of Units : - 4 X 210 MW(unit 1 to 4) with

Brush Type Generators, 2 X 250
MW(unit 5 and 6) with Brush less Type Generators, 2*500
MW(unit 7 and 8) Generators.
2) Total Energy Generation: - 2340 MW
3) Source of Water: - Damodar River
4) Sources of Coal: - B.C.C.L and E.C.L, also imported from
Indonesia

In a Thermal Power generating unit, combustion of fossil

fuel (coal, oil natural gas) in Boiler generates heat energy.
This heat energy transforms water stea at high pressure
and temperature. This steam is utilised to generate
mechanical energy in a Turbine. This mechanical energy, in
turn is converted into electrical energy with thehelp of an
Alternator coupled with the Turbine. The production of
electric energy utilising heat energy is known as thermal
power generation.
The heat energy changes into mechanical energy
following the principle of Rankine reheat-regenerative cycle
and this mechanical energy
transforms into electrical
energy based on Faradays laws of electromagnetic
induction.

OVERVIEW OF A
THERMAL POWER PLANT

pump. 3. Transmission line (3-phase).

4. Unit transformer (3phase). 5. Electric generator (3-phase).
6. Low pressure turbine. 7. Condensate
extraction pump.
8. Condenser. 9. Intermediate pressure
turbine. 10. Steam governor valve. 11.
High pressure
turbine. 12. De-aerator. 13. Feed
heater. 14. Coal conveyor. 15. Coal
hopper. 16. Pulverised fuel
mill. 17. Boiler drums. 18. Ash hopper.
19. Super heater. 20. Forced draught
fan. 21. Re-heater.
22. Air intake. 23. Economiser. 24. Air
pre heater. 25. Precipitator. 26.

MECHANICAL OPERATION

COAL HANDLING PLANT

Generally most of the thermal power plants uses low
grades bituminous coal. Theconveyer belt system
transports the coal from the coal storage area to the
coal mill. Now the FHP(Fuel Handling Plant) department
is responsible for converting the coal converting it into
fine granular dust by grinding process. The coal from
the coal bunkers.Coal is the principal energy source
because of its large deposits and availability. Coal can
be recovered from different mining techniques like: shallow seams by removing the over burnt expose
the coal seam
underground mining.

The coal handling plant is used to store, transport and distribute coal which comes
from the mine. The coal is delivered either through a conveyor belt system or by
rail
or road transport. The bulk storage of coal at the power station is important for the
continues supply of fuel. Usually the stockpiles are divided into three main
categories.
live storage
emergency storage
long term compacted stockpile.
The figure below shows the schematic representation of the coal handling plant.
Firstly the coal gets deposited into the track hopper from the wagon and then via
the
paddle feeder it goes to the conveyer belt#1A. Secondly via the transfer port the
coal
goes to another conveyer belt#2B and then to the crusher house. The coal after
being
crushed goes to the stacker via the conveyer belt#3 for being stacked or reclaimed
and finally to the desired unit. ILMS is the inline magnetic separator where all the
magnetic particles associated with coal get separated.

COAL HANDLING PLANT PROCEDURE

WATER TREATMENT
PLANT
Raw water supply:
Raw water received at the thermal power plant is passed through Water
Treatment Plant
to separate suspended impurities and dissolved gases including organic
substance and then through De-mineralised Plant to separate
soluble impurities.
Deaeration:
In this process, the raw water is sprayed over cascade aerator in which
water flows
downwards over many steps in the form of thin waterfalls. Cascading
increases surface area water to facilitate easy separation of
dissolved undesirable gases (like hydrogen sulphide, ammonia,
volatile organic compound etc.) or to help in oxygenation of mainly
ferrous ions in presence of atmospheri oxygen to ferric ions.
Coagulation:
Coagulation takes place in clariflocculator. Coagulant destabilises
suspended
solids and agglomerates them into heavier floc, which is separated out
through
sedimentation. Prime chemicals used for coagulation are alum, poly-

 Chlorination:
Neutral organic matter is very heterogeneous i.e. it contains many classes of high
molecular weight organic compounds. Humic substances constitute a major portion of
the dissolved organic carbon from surface waters. They are complex mixtures of
organic compounds with relatively unknown structures and chemical composition

DM (Demineralised Water) Plant

In De-mineralised Plant, the filter water of Water Treatment Plant is passed
through the pressure sand filter (PSF) to reduce turbidity and then through
activated charcoal filter (ACF) to adsorb the residual chlorine and iron in filter
water

BOILER SYSTEM
Working principle of Boiler (Steam Generator): In Boiler, steam is generated from
demineralized water by the addition of heat. The heat added has two parts:
sensible heat and latent heat. The sensible heat raises the temperature and
pressure of water as well as steam. The latent heat converts water into steam
(phase change). This conversion is also known as boiling of water, which is
dependent on pressure and corresponding temperature. Thermodynamically,
boiling is a process of heat addition to water at constant pressure &
temperature. The quantity of latent heat decreases with increase in pressure of
water and it becomes zero at 221.06 bars. This pressure is termed as critical
pressure. The steam generators are designated as sub-critical or super critical
based on its working pressure as below critical or above critical pressure. The
steam, thus formed is dry & saturated. Further, addition of heat raises the
temperature and pressure of steam, which is known as superheated steam. The
differential specific weight between steam and water provides the driving force
for natural circulation during the steam generation process. This driving force
considerably reduces at pressure around 175 Kg/cm2 and is not able to
overcome the frictional resistance of its flow path. For this, forced or assisted
circulation is employed at higher sub-critical pressure range due to the reason of
economy. But, at supercritical pressures and above, circulation is forced one
(such boiler is called once through boiler).

Important parts of Boiler & their

functions:
Economizer:
Feed water enters into the boiler through economizer. Its function is to
recover
residual heat of flue gas before leaving boiler to preheat feed water prior
to its entryinto boiler drum The drum water is passed through down-comers
for Circulation through the water wall for absorbing heat from furnace. The
economizerrecirculation line connects down-comer with the economizer
inlet header through an isolating valve and a non-return valve to protect
economizer tubes from overheating caused by steam entrapment and
starvation. This is done to ensure circulation of water through the tubes
during initial lighting up of boiler, when there is no feed water flow through
economizer.
Drum:
Boiler drum is located outside the furnace region or flue gas path. This stores
certain amount of water and separates steam from steam-water mixture.
The minimum drum water level is always maintained so as to prevent
formation of vortex and to protect water wall tubes (especially its corner
tubes) from steam entrapment / starvation due to higher circulation ratio of
boiler.

Superheater:
Superheaters (SH) are meant for elevating the steam temperature above
the saturation temperature in phases; so that maximum work can be
extracted from high energy (enthalpy) steam and after expansion in
Turbine, the dryness fraction does not reach below 80%, for avoiding
Turbine blade erosion/damage and attaining maximum Turbine internal
efficiency. Steam from Boiler Drum passes through primary superheater
placed in the convective zone of the furnace, then through platen
superheater placed in the radiant zone of furnace and thereafter, through
final superheater placed in the convective zone. The superheated steam
at requisite pressure and temperature is taken out of boiler to rotate
turbo-generator

Reheater:
In order to improve the cycle efficiency, HP turbine exhaust steam is
taken back to boiler to increase temperature by reheating process. The
steam is passed through Reheater, placed in between final superheater
bank of tubes & platen SH and finally taken out of boiler to extract work
out of it in the IP and LP turbine.

De-superheater (Attemperator):
Though superheaters are designed to maintain requisite steam temperature,
it is necessary to use de-superheater to control steam temperature. Feed
water, generally taken before feed water control station, is used for desuperheating steam to control its temperature at desired level.

Technical data of the Boiler

ASH HANDLING PLANT

A large quantity of ash is, produced in steam power plants using coal.
Ash produced in about 10 to 20% of the total coal burnt in the furnace.
Handling of
ash is a problem because ash coming out of the furnace is too hot, it is
dusty and
irritating to handle and is accompanied by some poisonous gases. It is
desirable to
quench the ash before handling due to following reasons:
1. Quenching reduces the temperature of ash.
2. It reduces the corrosive action of ash.
3. Ash forms clinkers by fusing in large lumps and by quenching clinkers
will
disintegrate.
4. Quenching reduces the dust accompanying the ash.
Fly ash is collected with an electrostatic precipitator(ESP)

PRECIPITATOR

The principal components of an ESP are 2 sets of electrodes insulated

from each other. First set of rows are electrically grounded vertical
plates called collecting electrodes while the second set consists of
wires called discharge electrodes. the negatively charged fly ash
particles are driven towards the collecting plate and the positive ions
travel to the negatively charged wire electrodes. Collected particulate
matter is removed from the collecting plates by a mechanical
hammer scrapping system.

BOILER AUXILIARIES

Induced draft fan (ID fan):

Induced draft represents the system where air or products of
combustion are driven out after combustion at boiler furnace by
maintaining them at a progressively increasing sub atmospheric
pressure. This is achieved with the help of induced draft fan and
stack. Induced draft fan is forward curved centrifugal (radial) fan
and sucks the fly-ash laden gas of temperature around 125C out of
the furnace to throw it into stack (chimney). The fan is connected
with driving motor through hydro-coupling or with variable
frequency drive (VFD) motor to keep desired fan speed.

fan):

Forced draft represents flow of air or products of combustion at a pressure

above atmosphere. The air for combustion is carried under forced draft
conditions and the fan used for this purpose is called Forced Draft (FD) fan.
It is axial type fan and is used to take air from atmosphere at ambient
temperature to supply air for combustion, which takes entry to boiler
through wind box. In all units except Durgapur TPS Unit #4, this fan also
supplies hot /cold air to the coal mills.

Primary air fan (PA fan) or

Exhauster fan:

Coal mill or pulveriser:

Most efficient way of utilizing coal for steam generation is to burn it in pulverised
form. The coal is pulverized in coal mill or pulveriser to fineness such that 70-80%
passes through a 200 mesh sieve. The factors that affect the operation of the mill or
reduce the mill output are:
Grindability of coal: Harder coal (i.e. coal having lower hard-grove index (H.G.I.))
reduces mill output and vice versa.
Moisture content of coal: More the moisture content in coal, lesser will be the
mill output & vice versa.
Fineness of output: Higher fineness of coal output reduces mill capacity
Size of coal input: Larger size of raw coal fed to the mill reduces mill output.
Wear of grinding elements: More wear and tear of grinding elements reduces
the
output from mill.
Size of coal input: Larger size of raw coal fed to the mill reduces mill output.
Wear of grinding elements: More wear and tear of grinding elements reduces
the
output from mill.

STEAM TURBINE

A steam turbine is a prime mover which continuously converts the energy of high
pressure, high temperature steam supplied by the boiler into shaft work with low
pressure, low temperature steam exhausted to a condenser.

Cooling tower

Cooling towers cool the warm water discharged from the condenser and
feed the cooled water backto the condenser. They thus reduce the
cooling water demand in the power plants. Wet coolingtowers could be
mechanically draught or natural draught. In M.T.P.S the cooling towers
are I.D.type for units 1-6 and natural draught for units 7&8.

CHIMNEY

A chimney may be considered as a cylindrical hollow tower made of bricks

or steel. In MTPS the chimneys of eight units are made of bricks. Chimneys
are used to release the exhaust gases(coming from the furnace of the
boiler)high up in the atmosphere. So, the height of the chimneys are made
high.
19

CONCLUSION
The practical experience that I have gathered during the overview training of
large thermal power plant having a large capacity of 2340 MW for Unit# I to
VIII in three weeks will be very useful as a stepping stone in building bright
professional career in future life. It gave me large spectrum to utilize the
theoretical knowledge and to put it into practice. The trouble shooting
activities in operation and decision making in case of crisis made me more
confident to work in the industrial atmosphere.
Moreover, this overview training has also given a self realization & hands-on
experience in developing the personality, interpersonal relationship with the
professional executives, staffs and to develop the leadership ability in industry
dealing with workers of all categories.
I would like to thank everybody who has been a part of this project, without
whom this project would never be completed with such ease.