THERMAL POWER PLANT

CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Basic Principles of Thermal Power Plant
3. History
4. Site Selection
5. India’s top 5 biggest Thermal Plants
6. General Layout
7. Power plant layout
8. Main and Auxiliary Equipments
9. Different types of Cycle
10.Working of Thermal Power Plant
11.Highlights of EIA
12.Future of Thermal Power Industry
INTRODUCTION

A Thermal Power Plant converts the heat energy of coal into

electrical energy. Coal is burnt in a boiler which converts
water into steam. The expansion of steam in turbine produces
mechanical power which drives the alternator coupled to the
turbine.Thermal Power Plants contribute maximum to the
generation of Power for any country . Thermal Power Plants
constitute 75.43% of the total installed captive and non-captive
power generation in India . In thermal generating stations coal,
oil, natural gas etc. are employed as primary sources of energy.
 Decentralized
Modular
generation of
Systems
electricity

Designed for
Use of power-
long-duration
heat coupling
operation

Variation due Large amount

to different of CO2
fuel sources emission
 BASIC PRINCIPLE OF THERMAL
POWER PLANT

• A Thermal Power Station is a power plant in

which the prime mover is steam driven.
Water is heated, turns into steam and spins
a steam turbine which drives an electrical
generator. After it passes through the
turbine, the steam is condensed in a
condenser and recycled to where it was
heated, this is known as a Rankine Cycle.
 HISTORY
 When the first commercially developed central
electrical power stations were established in 1882
at Pearl Street Station in New York and Holborn
Viaduct power station in London, reciprocating
steam engines were used.

 A steam engine is a heat engine that

performs mechanical work using steam as
its working fluid.

 By 1892 the turbine was considered a better

alternative to reciprocating engines; turbines
offered higher speeds, more compact machinery,
and stable speed regulation allowing for parallel
synchronous operation of generators on a common
A model of a beam engine
bus.
featuring James Watt's parallel
linkage for double action.
 The largest reciprocating engine-generator sets
ever built were completed in 1901 for
the Manhattan Elevated Railway. Each of seventeen
units weighed about 500 tons and was rated 6000
kilowatts.
• The construction and operation of a power
plant requires the existence of some conditions
such as water resources and stable soil type.

• Other criteria are not required for the power

plant, but they will be affected by either the
construction or operation of the plants like
population centers and protected areas.

• All the relevant factors are covered in the

following list.
•Transportation Network: Easy and enough access to transportation network is
required in both power plant construction and operation periods.
•Gas pipe Network: Vicinity to the gas pipes reduces the required expenses.
•Power Transmission Network: To transfer the generated electricity to the
consumers, the plant should be connected to electrical transmission system.
Therefore the nearness to the electric network can play a roll.
•Geology and Soil Type: The power plant should be built in an area with soil and
rock layers that could stand the weight and vibrations of the power plant.
•Earthquake and Geological Faults: Even weak and small earthquakes can damage
many parts of a power plant intensively. Therefore the site should be away enough
from the faults and previous earthquake areas.
•Topography: It is proved that high elevation has a negative effect on production
efficiency of gas turbines. In addition, changing of a sloping area into a flat site for
the construction of the power plant needs extra budget. Therefore, the parameters
of elevation and slope should be considered.
•Rivers and Floodways: obviously, the power plant should have a reasonable
distance from permanent and seasonal rivers and floodways.
•Water Resources: For the construction and operating of power plant different
volumes of water are required. This could be supplied from either rivers or
underground water resources. Therefore having enough water supplies in defined
vicinity can be a factor in the selection of the site.
•Environmental Resources: Operation of a power plant has important impacts on
environment. Therefore, priority will be given to the locations that are far enough
from national parks, wildlife, protected areas, etc.
•Population Centers: For the same reasons as above, the site should have an enough
distance from population centers.
•Need for Power: In general, the site should be near the areas that there is more
need for generation capacity, to decrease the amount of power loss and
transmission expenses.
•Climate: Parameters such as temperature, humidity, wind direction and speed
affect the productivity of a power plant and always should be taken into account.
•Land Cover: Some land cover types
such as forests, orchard, agricultural
land, pasture are sensitive to the
pollutions caused by a power plant. The
effect of the power plant on such land
cover types surrounding it should be
counted for.
•Area Size: Before any other
consideration, the minimum area size
required for the construction of power
plant should be defined.
•Distance from Airports: Usually, a
power plant has high towers and
chimneys and large volumes of gas.
Consequently for security reasons, they
should be away from airports.
•Archeological and Historical sites:
Usually historical building are fragile
and at same time very valuable.
Therefore the vibration caused by
power plant can damage them, and a
defined distance should be considered.
GENERAL LAYOUT OF THERMAL
POWER STATION
Diagram o f a t y p i c a l coal- f i r e d therm a l
power station
D i a g r a m o f a t y p i c a l c o a l -f i r e d
thermal power station

1.Coolingtower 10.Steam Control valve 19.Superheater

2. Cooling water pump 11.High pressure steam turbine 20. Forced draught (draft) fan
3. transmission line (3-phase) 12.Deaerator 21.Reheater
4. Step-up transformer (3-phase) 13. Feed waterheater 22. Combustion air intake
5. Electrical generator (3-phase) 14. Coalconveyor 23. Economiser
6.Low pressure steam turbine 15.Coal hopper 24. Air preheater
7. Condensate pump 16. Coal pulveriser 25. Precipitator
8. Surface condenser 17.Boiler steamdrum 26. Induced draught (draft) fan
9.Intermediate pressuresteam
18. Bottom ash hopper 27. Flue gasstack
turbine
 MAIN ANDAUXILIARY EQUIPMENTS
1. Coal handling plant
2. Pulverizing plant
3. Draft fans
4. Boiler
5. Ash handling plant
6. Turbine
7. Condenser
8. Cooling towers and ponds
9. Feed water heater
10.Economiser
11.Superheater and Reheater
12.Air preheater
•

•
COAL HANDLING PLANT

•The function of coal handling plant is automatic feeding of coal to the

boiler furnace.
• A thermal power plant burns enormous amounts of coal.
•A 200MW plant may require around 2000 tons of coal daily
PULVERISING PLANT

In modern thermal power plant , coal is

pulverised i.e. ground to dust like size and
carried to the furnace in a stream of hot air.
Pulverising is a means of exposing a large
surface area to the action of oxygen and
consequently helping combustion.
Pulverising mills are further classified as:

1.Contact mill
2.Ball mill
3.Impact mill
DRAFT SYSTEM

• The circulation of air is caused by a difference in pressure,

• known as Draft. Draft is a differential pressure b/w atmosphere
and inside the boiler.
• It is necessary to cause the flow of gases through boiler setting
• • It may be–

1.Natural draft
•
2. Mechanical draft
BOILER
 BOILER

•A boiler or steam generator is a closed vessel in which water

under pressure, is converted into steam.

•It is one of the major components of a thermal power plant

•Always designed to absorb maximum amount of heat released in

the process of combustion
 SUPERHEATER AND REHEATER

Most of the modern boilers are having super heater and reheater arrangement.

Superheater :
Superheater is a component of a steam-generating unit in which steam, after it
has left the boiler drum, is heated above its saturation temperature.
The amount of superheat added to the steam is influenced by the location,
arrangement, and amount of super heater surface installed, as well as the rating
of the boiler.
Super heaters are classified as :- convection , radiant or combination of these.
Reheater :

Some of the heat of superheated steam is used to rotate the turbine

where it loses some of its energy. Reheater is also steam boiler
component in which heat is added to this intermediate-pressure steam,
which has given up some of its energy in expansion through the high-
pressure turbine. This mechanical energy is used to run the alternator,
which is coupled to turbine ,there by generating electrical energy.
TURBINE
TURBINE –FULL VIEW
STEAM TURBINE

 A steam turbine converts heat energy of steam into

mechanical energy and drives the generator.

 It uses the principle that steam when issuing from a small

opening attains a high velocity.

 This velocity attained during expansion depends on the

initial and final heat content of the steam.

These are of two types :-

 Impulse turbine
 Reaction turbine
ASH HANDLING PLANT
The percentage of ash in coal varies from 5% in good quality coal to
about 40% in poor quality coal
Power plants generally use poor quality of coal , thus amount of ash
produced by it is pretty large
A modern 2000MW plant produces about 5000 tons of ash daily.
Chimney :
•The chimney is 275 meters' high and 50,000 tonnes of reinforced concrete were used
to make it
•It consists of flues each of which serve typically two or three boilers (two units)
 CONDENSER

 Steam after rotating steam turbine comes to condenser. Condenser

refers here to the shell and tube heat exchanger (or surface condenser)
installed at the outlet of every steam turbine in Thermal power stations
of utility companies generally.

 These condensers are heat exchangers which convert steam from its
gaseous to its liquid state, also known as phase transition.
Electro-Static Precipitator :

It is a device which removes dust or other finely divided particles from flue gases by
charging the particles inductively with an electric field, then attracting them to highly
Icharged collector plates. Also known as precipitator. The process depends on two steps.
n the first step the suspension passes through an electric discharge (corona discharge)
area where ionization of the gas occurs. The ions produced collide with the suspended
particles and confer on them an electric charge. The charged particles drift toward an
electrode of opposite sign and are deposited on the electrode where their electric charge
is neutralized.
COOLING TOWERS AND PONDS

o A condenser needs huge quantity of water to condense the steam .

o Typically a 2000MW plant needs about 1500MGallon of water.
oMost plants use a closed cooling system where warm water coming from
condenser is cooled and reused
oSmall plants use spray ponds and medium and large plants use cooling towers.
oCooling tower is a steel or concrete hyperbolic structure having a reservoir at the
base for storage of cooled water
oHeight of the cooling tower may be 150 m or so and diameter at the base is 150 m
Some other Cooling Towers :
FEED WATER HEATER

Advantages of heating water before feeding back to the boiler:-

b)Feed water heating improves overall plant efficiency.

c)The dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide which would

otherwise cause boiler corrosion are removed in feed water
heater

d)Thermal stresses due to cold water entering the boiler drum

are avoided.

e)Some other impurities carried by the steam and

condensate, due to corrosion of boiler and condenser are
precipitated outside the boiler.
ECONOMISER
 Flue gases coming out of the boiler carry lot of heat.
An economiser extracts a part of this heat from flue
gases and uses it for heating feed water.

 This use of economiser results in saving coal

consumption and higher boiler efficiency
ECONOMIZER
 AIR PREHEATER

After flue gases leave economiser, some further heat

can be extracted from them and used to heat
incoming heat. Cooling of flue gases by 20 degree
centigrade increases the plant efficiency by 1%.
Air preheaters may be of three types
 Plate type
 Tubular type
 Regenerative type
Efficiency of Thermal Power Station or Plant

The overall efficiency of a thermal power station or plant varies from 20% to 26%
and it depends upon plant capacity.
Some basic Problems for Thermal Power plant Planning.

1. Fuel quality & availability Coal quality & availability constraints

2. Coal beneficiation
3. Power generation technology
4. Clean coal based technologies
5. Land accusation Problem
6. Logistic route Rail/ Road, pipelines, port etc (for fuel, water, ash etc)
7. Water source.
8. Environmental clearance.
.
1. Resultant cost can at best be applied only as a prudence check rather than be used to
determine the tariff.

2. Technological transfer price impact: Impact of advisory issued by CEA in February

2010 regarding incorporation of the condition of setting up of phased indigenous
manufacturing facilities in the bids while sourcing supercritical units would require
accounting for increase in cost on such issues.
 Present Status of Power Generation in INDIA:
• Economic growth in INDIA depends upon the power sector. The electric energy
demands in the last two decades have increased at enormous space. In 1947, the
• total power generation was only 1360 MW.
The present generation status as planned is as follows:
Table : INDIAN generation capacity in MW
Type of power plant 1991 8th Plan 9th Plan 10th Plan Total
(1997) (2002) (2007)
Thermal (including gas 45000 28000 32000 58000 163000
based plants)
Hydro 18443 8680 26000 23000 76123
Nuclear 1500 1320 2880 - 5700
Additional - 38000 60880 81000 -
Total 64943 102943 163823 244823 244823

• INDIA is still short of 20% of power generation in INDIA. Due to depleting natural
resources of fuel, INDIA is also developing non-conventional energy sources like
wind, tide, bio mass, geothermal and solar energy based power plants.
Solid Waste
Coal Ash
The residuals of coal combustion in power plants that are
captured by pollution control technology, such as scrubbers, are
often referred to as coal ash.
Coal Ash is a Hazardous Waste. Coal ash, the toxic remains of
coal burning in power plants, is full of chemicals that cause
cancer, developmental disorders and reproductive problems. It
poisons our water and kills fish and wildlife.
All elements below atomic number 92 are present in coal ash.
After collection at a power plant, bottom ash, boiler slag is often
impounded in a surface storage pond or in a landfill.
 Solid Waste
 Fly Ash
 Fly ash is fine glass powder, the particles of which are generally
spherical in shape and range in size from 0.5 to 100 μm.
 Fly ash is classified into two types according to the type of
coal used. Anthracite and bituminous coal produces fly ash
classified as class F. Class C fly ash is produced by burning
lignite or sub-bituminous coal. Class C fly ash has self-
cementing
An electrostatic precipitator (ESP) is a filtration device that
removes fine particles, like Fly ash, Soot and smoke, from a
flowing gas using the force of an induced electrostatic charge
minimally impeding the flow of gases through the unit.
 Fly ash can be disposed-off in a dry or wet state.
Studies show that wet disposal of this waste does not
protect the environment from migration of metal into
the soil. Heavy metals cannot be degraded biologically
into harmless products like other organic waste.

 All the heavy metals (Ni, Cd, Sb, As, Cr, Pb, etc.)
generally found in fly ash are toxic in nature.
Fly ash bricks
Fly ash bricks have a number of advantages over the conventional
burnt clay bricks. Unglazed tiles for use on footpaths can also be
made from it. Awareness among the public is required and the
Government has to provide special incentives for this purpose.

Fly ash in manufacture of cement

Fly ash is suitable for use as pozzolana .
Fly ash particles are almost totally spherical in shape, allowing
them to flow and blend freely in mixtures. This property make fly
ash a desirable admixture for concrete.

Fly ash in distemper

Distemper manufactured with fly ash as a replacement for white
cement.
Fly ash-based ceramics
The National Metallurgical Laboratory, Jamshedpur has developed a process to
produce ceramics from fly ash having superior resistance to abrasion.

Fly ash as fertilizer

Fly ash provides the uptake of vital nutrients/minerals (Ca, Mg, Fe, Zn, Mo, S and Se)
by crops and vegetation, and can be considered as a potential growth improver. It
serves as a good fertilizer.

Fly ash in road construction

The use of fly ash in large quantities making the road base and surfacing can result
in low value–high volume utilization.
 Although Renewable Energy sector is catching up fast in India with State
governments supporting National solar mission via solar parks, subsidies etc. ,it
still has a long way to go and until 2030 or even later thermal power plants
would still play the major role of supplying electricity throughout the country.

 The present trend of adding 2000-3000 MW a year is not sufficient enough to

achieve the target of 100 GW solar energy by 2022 via rooftop and grid
connected solar PV's

 Unless India becomes a power sufficient country comparable to most advanced

economies, it's very unlikely that India would completely eradicate thermal
power stations, only the energy mix would change in the upcoming future.

 Thermal power plants would still play the major role of base load stations which
is essential for the overall economic development of the country and helping
the government's make in India initiative.
 The older thermal units would be replaced with super-critical units and this would
help in increasing the efficiency and reducing GHG emissions.

 Transmission and distribution losses are quite high in our country, followed by the
problem of power theft. These vital issues need to be addressed with utmost
priority rather than adding up more power stations be it renewable/non-renewable
energy.

 India is the world’s third-largest carbon emitter and relies on coal-fired power
plants to produce most of its energy. With a population of 1.3 billion and a fast-
industrializing economy, those energy needs had been forecast to soar.