Subbiahkannan

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Real Time projects using ETAP for the combined cycle power plant

1.) what is Open Cycle Gas turbine

 It is the Gas power plant, the natural gas with the high pressure & high
temperature hits the gas turbine & rotates the gas turbine probably which reach
the generator and then convert into the electricity
 But this gas hitting the gas turbine has exhausted with still high temperature
 Only you have the gas turbine then the exhaust gas allowed to waste it.
 Then it is open cycle
 OCGT power plants operate on a single thermodynamic cycle
Brayton cycle without the addition of a steam cycle.
In simple words,
 Gas turbine generates electricity by burning natural gas to drive a generator.
Merits:-
 It is more flexible and can start up quickly, making them suitable for peaking
power generation or providing power during periods of high demand.
Demerits:-
 OCGT plants are generally less efficient than CCGT plants because they only
use the gas turbine cycle

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2.)What is the combine cycle Gas turbine power plant?

 It is the Gas power plant, the natural gas with the high pressure & high
temperature hits the gas turbine & rotates the gas turbine probably which reach
the generator and then convert into the electricity
 But this gas hitting the gas turbine has exhausted with still high temperature
 The pressure of natural gas and part of the heat might have been convert into the
electricity but still the exhaust gas have the huge temperature
 If you have the high temperature that can be covert into electricity by simple
logic called HRSG
What is HRSG
 HRSG is the heat recovery steam generator,
 We know that exhaust gas have the high temperature, these HRSG is extracting
the heat and convert into the steam to run the next generator that is thermal
generator or steam turbine generator
 If you have the Heat recovery steam generation and convert & run into the other
steam generator.
 Then Gas turbine GTG and steam turbine Generator GTG which is called as the
combined cycle power plant
 Combine cycle Gas turbine power plant combination of two thermodynamic
cycles,
Brayton cycle (gas turbine)
Rankine cycle (steam turbine).
In simple words,
 In the first stage, a gas turbine generates electricity by burning natural gas to
drive a generator.
 The hot exhaust gases from the gas turbine are then used to produce steam in a
heat recovery steam generator (HRSG).
Merits:-
 CCGT plants are known for their high efficiency because they make use of both
the gas and steam turbines, extracting more energy from the fuel compared to a
single-cycle power plant.

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3.)What is Efficiency?
 Energy can neither be created nor be destroyed it can convert the one form
energy into other form of energy
 Efficiency always defined as the output/Input
Note:-
The above two terminology are conflicted because the energy can
neither be created nor be destroyed.
Then output is always equal to input because the energy always not
destroyed
Efficiency can be defined in better way
 Efficiency = useful input/output
 Because input is always equal to output
 We call some losses that losses also some output we are not utilizing it

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4.)What about the efficiency of Open cycle plant & combine cycle gas turbine
plant?
 In open cycle plant, the exhaust gas is wasted that is not used
 In combine cycle plant, waste some amount of heat that can be extracted &
convert into electricity
 Then obviously efficiency is more & you will be able to increase the efficiency
of Gas turbine plant from 45% to 60% in the combine cycle plant
5.)Case study of Combine cycle plant(Introduction)

The overall SLD is shown in above

 This power plant having two gas turbine generator and two steam turbine
generators
Gas turbine generator rating:
 It has the rating of 207.4MW at 40deg Celsius
 Lagging power factor=0.85
Note:-
if you go below 30deg Celsius then the rating of Gas turbine will be high, like more
somewhat around 230MW
 These gas turbine generators have the NGTR
 NGTR means Neutral Grounding transformer resistor

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 Now we are going to see why we are using the NGTR and how to choose the
power factor of 0.85 and which regulation they are go with p.f. of 0.85 why not
0.9 or 0.95 p.f. used these are the question you may ask?

Gas turbine Generator step up transformer rating:

 It has the capacity of 230MVA at 50 deg Celsius, voltage rating is 420/15.75kV
 This step-up generator is connected to 400kV switchyard that means grid
nominal voltage is only 400kV, but the HV side of transformer is 420kV what is
the reason behind that?

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Note:-
It is the Non-Generator Circuit Breaker scheme
Unit Auxiliary Transformer rating:
 Here you are having the unit auxiliary transformer & its capacity is 16MVA and
voltage rating is 15.75/6.9kV
 In the unit auxiliary transformer also, you are having the NGR which limits the
fault current of 300A
 Why not they are not using the solid ground system instead they are go with
Resistance ground system
 Unit auxiliary transformer for supply the auxiliary loads for our gas turbines

In the LV side you seen the lot of 6.6kV motors

Steam Turbine generator rating:

 We have the steam turbine generator having the capacity of 124.6MW and the
voltage rating is 15.75kV & PF is 0.85
 If you are noticed that the steam turbine generator and gas turbine generator, use
the separate generator step up transformer

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Station Transformer rating:

 We have the one more transformer is station transformer & rating is 132/6.9kV
 What is the application of these station transformer and why the station
transformer is interconnected with the unit switch board what is the reason
behind it
6.) What winding configuration used in the combine cycle plant especially in
middle east
In Middle east, most of the gas turbine power plant uses the one no’s of three winding
generator.
 It means HV side is connected to the grid and Left side winding is connected to
the gas turbine and right-side winding is connected to the steam turbine.
 They use the single three phase winding transformer to evacuate the power from
generator to the grid
7.) What are the power system studies which need for combine cycle plant
Load flow study:
 To find out voltage profile at all buses
 Equipment loading of all branches
 Select the OLTC range of the Generator step up transformer & unit auxiliary
transformer.
 To check the continuous rating of MV switchgears
 To check the continuous rating of LV switchgears

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 It also important to identify where do we need the on load tap changer is need &
where off load tap changer is sufficient
 What is the tap range we need to select for the transformer all those things we
need the Load flow analysis
Load flow analysis is essential for any combine cycle plant at the initial
stage along the engineering stage & as built stage itself
Short circuit study:
 How to select the short circuit rating of MV switchgear
 How to select the short circuit rating of LV switchgear
 Generator step up transformer impedance
 Unit Auxiliary transformer impedance
 Station Auxiliary transformer impedance
 Generator circuit breaker rating
Motor Acceleration/Motor starting study:
 Combine cycle plant uses the natural gas Compressor.
 if you have the gas plant then compressor needs the largest capacity of motor
you need
Note:-
 Boiler feed pump might be the largest motor in the thermal power plant
Transient stability study:
 To perform and check what is the critical clearing time
Relay co-ordination study:
 To give the protection setting
Arc flash studies
 To ensure that what is the personal protective equipment is needed
 Why Arc flash study is needed like you may need the live maintenance on your
switchgears then you need arc flash study

Harmonic Analysis studies:-

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 You may need the Harmonic Analysis, if your system consists of Variable
frequency drives for the medium voltage motors
 It is the optional & it is required only when considerable VFD’s are used
The above studies are come under the steady state and electromechanical transients
In addition to that since this system is connected to 400kV, then definitely you need the
Insulation co-ordination study for 400kV
Temporary over voltage,
slow front over voltage
switching over voltage
transformer energization
Lightning over voltage is need when your outgoing feeders are
transmission lines
If it is the Gas Insulated substation then you need the very fast front
overvoltage
8.)Why high-capacity Generator should not solidly grounded & why they are
connected to NGTR

 Limiting the ground fault current to a very small value

 If you talk about these generators, these generator stator winding have an
amazing huge short-circuit withstand capability.
 We are talking about 207MW,0.85 power factor like the full load current itself
10kA or 15kA
 So, these winding have the huge, short circuit current capability but not the
stator cores
 When there is the SLG fault inside the generator, the return path goes to the
stator core only
 Stator of high-capacity generator will gets saturated very low current itself

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 So, it is important and limit the SLG current much less than what is the stator
core saturation or damage value
 Hence typically the High-capacity generator are limited SLG fault current to 5A
& limiting the SLG fault current into 5A in 15.75kV generator need the huge
rating of NGR it is practically not possible to have the high neutral grounding
resistor value
This is the reason why we go with one transformer with step down
voltage from 15.75kV to 0.24kV and you are connecting the small
resistance which limits the SLG fault current
since the resistance value is connected to the huge value on the other
side that limit the SLG fault current to a very small value typically 5A
Note:
 Please try to understand 600A at 240V of the LV side of it & not the HV side

9.)How to validate through ETAP simulation for NGTR?

 Let’s see in the ETAP simulation
 Model one by one, 400kV Grid,Generator step upTransformer, Isolated bus duct
and Generator

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Let’s focus first generator & its rating

Let’s see the grounding of generator, how to model it

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Choose the NGTR grounding

Put the HV & LV side voltage rating of 15.75kV & 0.24kV
Put the secondary side ohms 0.342ohm which is limit our current of 405.2A on
the LV winding & 6A on the HV winding
Transformer rating put as 50kVA which is the continuous rating
10.)what is the difference between 405.2A on the LV side of NGTR & 600A
continuous rating of NGTR?
 In etap, we seen that the NGTR modelling for generator which limits the current
of 405.2A on the LV side but in the SLD shows 600A for 5min what is the
difference?

 We need to consider the limiting current of 405.2A only

 These 600A for 5min is we have the resistor on the LV side, this resistor is
capable of withstanding 600A for 5min
What is the 0.342ohm value on the LV side?
 These 0.342ohm at 0.24kV which limits the current of 405.2A on the LV
winding.
 We know that 600A for 5min which withstand. It means if you want to limit the
current of 405.2A for 8min(assume)
 We understand that LV side current is limited to 405.2A then the corresponding
HV side is much less that current rating is 6.174A
 I already told that typically, SLG current want to limits 5A, here it is given as
6.174A as per our NGTR modelling(attached image seen)

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Let’s see about transformer rating,

 Transformer rating put as 50kVA which is the continuous rating
 Please note that 50kVA is the continuous rating,
 Current rating=50kVA/15.75kV=50/15.75=3.1746A
Note:-
It is the single-phase transformer, so we don’t multiply with 1.732 times on the
denominator to get the current rating
11.)Now we have the HV side current rating of 50kVA transformer is 3A but the
current what we have seen in the HV side is 6.174A what is the difference of both?

Answer:-
 These 6.174A is the SLG fault current that is going to have the very short time
 Whereas 50kVA,3A is the continuous current you might be aware the
transformer can withstand through fault current for 2sec
 So, like these NGT can withstand much higher current than the current of 6A
what is going to flow during the SLG current because the duration is restricted to
very few milliseconds or seconds

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12.)Generator rating is 244MVA & step-up transformer rating is 230MVA is it

good enough?
 we have transformer rating, and another one is generator rating let’s show the
image 207.4MW of generator have the 244MVA rating whereas our step up
transformer is 230MVA is it good enough?

Answer:
Here the generator is rated at 40deg Celsius and here step-up transformer is
rated at 50deg Celsius
So, whenever you select the transformer for the combine cycle plant or gas
plant please be remember
 Collect the generator capability curve at the different temperatures
from the OEM
 Collect the capability curve for generator step up transformer at
various temperatures from the OEM
Then decide the transformer rating
I am repeating once,
 Collect the rating Vs different temperature of the generator OEM
 Collect the rating Vs different temperature of the transformer OEM
Then you select the ideal one.
if you draw the graph between the generator rating & transformer rating

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 When we say the rating of Generator & step-up transformerSLD may confuse
 SLDsays that the Generator step up transformer(230MVA) may be in-
adequately size by looking at the generator(240MVA) but it is good enough
 Because 50deg Celsius,230MVAthese trafo will be much more than the
240MVA at 40deg Celsius
13.)What is the purpose of On-load tap changer in generator step-up
transformer?
Option:
a.)To regulate the grid voltage
b.)To regulate the generator terminal voltage
c.)To extract the maximum reactive power capability from the generator
Answer: B & C
b.)To regulate the generator terminal voltage
c.)To extract the maximum reactive power capability from the generator

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14.) How to validate, purpose of On-load tap changer in generator step-up

transformer through etap

 For the given system with 100% grid voltage, real power injected to grid is 49.5
MW and, the reactive power absorbed from grid is 7.35 MVAr
 At PCC leading power factor of 98.92% is observed.
 The generator terminal voltage (Vg) is maintained at 100% and the loss in
Generator transformer (GT) at 0% tap having impedance of 12.5% is 0.07 MW
and 3.14 MVAr.
 At 100% grid voltage, generator absorbs reactive power of 4.03 MVAr
I repeat my statement,
 In generator step up transformer HV winding no-load voltage is as same as the
grid voltage

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 During the normal grid voltage, the generator starts absorbing the reactive power
from the grid, leads to the leading power factor these may impact the penalty
from the utility
 If you don’t have the OLTC, then you don’t able to extract the reactive power
capability of these generator to the grid
 In some of the plants, it is important to understand as the individual power
producer you will be having two benefits

Energy charges will be getting

Capacitive charges will be getting that capacitive charges in few
countries will paid on MVA based
 When it is on MVA based, then if you do not have the OLTC, you may not be
able to extract the entire reactive power capability to showcase your
capability/capacity at the point of interconnection is more
15.)How to find the Qmin & Qmax value for the generator by power factor
control mode
When you model in the ETAP & run the load flow analysis

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Result of LFA:
 These generators neither generate the real power nor generate the reactive power
 I have given all the information & I have given all this data but un-fortunately it
is not generating any real power or reactive power why?
“Capacity is something different and what now generating is different ”

 In the rating tab, how to give Qmax and Qmin?

To find Qmax:
For that you put in the PF control mode in the info tab, then you put the 85%
as PF in the rating tab then you get the value of 128 MVAr that value you put
as Qmax for ex:128
To find Qmin:
For that you put in the PF control mode in the info tab, then you put the 95%
as pf in the rating tab then you get the value of 68MVAr that value you put as
Qmin for ex:-68
Then finally you put in the voltage control mode,
Then run the Load flow analysis
Now the generator is start generating

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 Now the generator is start generating 207MVAr but it only generating

4.95MVAr but if you look at from the grid side like it is consuming -14MVAr if
you look at the transformer loss is 19MVAr
 Though you generate the 4MVAr from the generator but your grid also
generating the 15MVAr which results in the leading power factor at the point of
interconnection
 You cannot be able to extract the reactive power available in the generator to
these grid

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16)Why generator step up Transformer HV terminal voltage is 420kV even

though my grid voltage is 400kV?
 To extract the reactive power capability from the generator & ensure that the
generator terminal voltage not go beyond its maximum positive limit it is
advisable to increase the HV terminal voltage from the 400kV to 420kV

If you see the case-1 in which generator is generating 4.95MVAr and in case-2
the generator generates the 112.5MVAr
If you see the case-1 you extract the reactive power of 14.2MVAr from the
grid and in case-2 you inject the reactive power of 87.8MVAr to the grid

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17)Why power factor is 0.85 for the gas turbine generator?

 If you see these is the CEA guidelines that is released by Indian government
 If you look at each country, they are having some grid regulations that means we
need to maintain the certain amount of reactive power at the grid side
 Generator have the capability of inject the reactive power and it’s capability of
absorb the reactive power
 If you look at the grid code regulations, as per the Indian grid they are making
certain pre-liminary assessment all
Types of Generating Unit Qmax Qmin
Thermal Units Qmax=0.60*Pmax Qmin=(-) 0.30*Pmax
Nuclear Units Qmax=0.50*Pmax Qmin=0
Hydro Units Qmax=0.48*Pmax Qmin=(-) 0.24*Pmax
Wind/Solar/BESS Qmax=0.33*Pmax Qmin=(-) 0.33*Pmax

What is Qmax:
In the thermal unit,
Then Qmax, it is the maximum reactive power generate by the generator
should be 0.60*Pmax
For ex:-
 if we have 100MW thermal unit, then which can able to generate at-least
60MVAr
What is Qmin:
In the thermal unit,
Then Qmin, it is the maximum reactive power absorb by the generator
should be (-)0.30*Pmax
For ex:-
if we have 100MW thermal unit, then which can able to absorb at-least 30MVAr
Depends on the generator and the grid code
 Like every country which provide some regulations for the nuclear unit, thermal
unit, wind/solar for renewable they will provide some Qmin and Qmax value
based on that you have to give the generator power factor

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 So, in our case 0.85 power factor at the time only we can maintain the above
grid regulations
 Each & every grid code has their own requirements of what is the reactive power
must be supported
 Typically, 0.95 power factor for renewables.
 Whereas 0.85,0.9.0.95 depends on the thermal, hydro, nuclear etc.,

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