UNIT-V POWER PLANT ENGINEERING

LECTURE NOTES
ON

POWER PLANT ENGINEERING

Prepared
By

RAM BABU DARA

Senior Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering

Aditya Nagar, ADB Road, Surampalem, East Godavari Dist,

Andhra Pradesh-533437

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UNIT-V POWER PLANT ENGINEERING

Syllabus:

UNIT– V:
POWER PLANT ECONOMICS AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS:
Capital cost, investment of fixed charges, operating costs, general arrangement of power
distribution, load curves, load duration curve, definitions of connected load, maximum
demand, demand factor, average load, load factor, diversity factor – energy audit-related
exercises. Effluents from power plants and Impact on environment – pollutants and pollution
standards – methods of pollution control.

Power Plant Economy

• The main purpose of design and operation of the plant is to bring the “cost of energy
produced to minimum”.
• Effective “utilization of resources, minimize the losses” in order to increase the
profit of the power corps
I. Fixed Cost/Capital Cost
Initial cost of the plant:
• Initial cost of the plant, which includes:
• 1. Land cost 2. Building cost 3.
Equipment cost
• 4. Installation cost 5. Overhead charges
II. Operational Cost
The elements that make up the operating expenditure of a power plant include the following
costs:
• Cost of fuels
• Labour cost
• Cost of maintenance and repairs
• Cost of stores (other than fuel)
• Supervision
• Taxes
FIXED COST / CAPITAL COST
The cost analysis of power plant includes fixed cost and running cost.
1. Fixed cost:
(i) Land, building and equipment cost:

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 Cost of land and building will depend upon the "location of the plant". If the plant is
situated near the cities, the land will be costlier than the case if it is located
away from the cities.
 The cost of equipment or the plant investment cost is usually expressed on the basis of
kW capacity installed.
(ii) Interest
 All the enterprises need investment of money and this money may be obtained as
loan, through bonds and shares, or from owners of personal funds.
 The interest on the capital investment must be considered because otherwise
if the same amount was not invested in power plant, it would have earned an
annual interest.
 A suitable rate of interest must be considered on the capital invested.
(iii) Depreciation cost:
 Depreciation accounts for the deterioration of the equipment and decrease in its value
due to corrosion, weathering, and wear and tear with use.
 It also covers the decrease in value of equipment due to obsolescence. It is
required to replace the generating plant machinery after its expiry of useful life.
 Therefore, a certain amount is kept aside every year from the income of the
plant to enable the replacement of plant at the end of its useful life. This
amount is called depreciation amount.
 The following methods are used to calculate the depreciation amount:
1. Straight line method 2. Sinking fund method
3. Diminishing value method
Let
P = Initial cost of plant
S = Salvage value at the end of the plant life, n = Plant life in years,
r = Annual rate of interest on the invested capital,
A = The amount to be kept aside per year as depreciation amount.
(a) Straight line method:
 According to this method, annual amount to be set aside is calculated by using
following formula:
P -S
A=
n

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 In this method, the amount set aside per year as depreciation fund does not depend on
the interest it may draw. The interest earned by the depreciation amount is taken as
income.
 This method is commonly used because of its simplicity.
(b) Sinking Fund Method:
 In this method, the amount set aside per year consists of annual installations and the
interest earned on all the instalments.
(c) Diminishing value method:
 In this method the deterioration in value of equipment from year to year is
taken into account and the amount of depreciation calculated upon actual
residual value for each year. It thus, reduces for successive years.
(iv) Insurance:
 The costly equipment and the buildings must be insured for the fire risks, riots
etc. A fixed sum is set aside per year as insurance charges. The insurance
charge depends upon the initial cost of the plant and the insurance coverage.
(v) Management cost:
 This includes the salaries of management, security and administrative staff, etc.
working in the plant. This must be paid whether the plant is working or not.
Therefore, this is including in fixed charges of the plant.
OPERATIONAL COST:
1. COST OF FUELS:
• In a thermal station fuel is the heaviest item of operating cost. The selection of the
fuel and the maximum economy in its use are, therefore, very important
considerations in thermal plant design.
• It is desirable to achieve the highest thermal efficiency for the plant so that fuel
charges are reduced.
• The cost of fuel includes not only its price at the site of purchase but its transportation
and handling costs also.

• In the hydro plants the absence of fuel factor in cost is responsible for lowering the
operating cost.
• Plant heat rate can be improved by the use of better quality of fuel or by employing
better thermodynamic conditions in the plant design.

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• The cost of fuel varies with the following:

(1) Unit price of the fuel.
(2) Amount of energy produced.
(3) Efficiency of the plant.
2. LABOUR COST
• For plant operation labour cost is another item of operating cost. Maximum labour is
needed in a thermal power plant using. Coal as a fuel.
• A hydraulic power plant or a diesel power plant of equal capacity requires a lesser
number of persons.
• In case of automatic power station the cost of labour is reduced to a great extent.
However labour cost cannot be completely eliminated even with fully automatic
station, as they will still require some manpower for periodic inspection etc.
3. COST OF MAINTENANCE AND REPAIRS
• In order to avoid plant breakdowns maintenance is necessary. Maintenance includes
periodic cleaning, greasing, adjustments and overhauling of equipment.
• The material used for maintenance is also charged under this head. Sometimes an
arbitrary percentage is assumed as maintenance cost.
• A good plan of maintenance would keep the sets in dependable condition and avoid
the necessity of too many stand-by plants. Repairs are necessitated when the plant
breaks down or stops due to faults developing in the mechanism.
• The repairs may be minor, major or periodic overhauls and are charged to the
depreciation fund of the equipment.
• This item of cost is higher for thermal plants than for hydro-plants due to complex
nature of principal equipment and auxiliaries in the former.
4. COST OF STORES
• The items of consumable stores other than fuel include such articles as lubricating oil
and greases, cotton waste, small tools, chemicals, paints and such other things.
• The incidence of this cost is also higher in thermal stations than in hydro-electric
power stations.
5. SUPERVISION
• In this head the salary of supervising staff is included. A good supervision is reflected
in lesser breakdowns and extended plant life.
• The supervising staff includes the station superintendent, chief engineer, chemist,
engineers, supervisors, stores incharges, purchase officer and other establishment.
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• Again, thermal stations, particularly coal fed, have a greater incidence of this cost
than the hydro-electric power stations.
6. TAXES
• The taxes under operating head includes the following:

(i) Income tax

(ii) Sales tax

(iii) Social security and employee‟s security etc.

(iv) Recently added goods and service tax(GST)

TYPES OF LOADS
i. Residential load: This type of load includes domestic lights, power needed for
domestic appliances such as radios, TV, water heaters, refrigerators, electric cookers
and small motors for pumping water.
ii. Commercial load: It includes lighting for shops, advertisements and electrical
appliances used in shops and restaurants etc.
iii. Industrial load: It consists of load demand of various industries.
iv. Municipal load: It consists of street lighting, power required for water supply and
drainage purposes.
v. Irrigation load: This type of load includes electrical power needed for pumps driven
by electric motors to supply water to fields.
vi. Traction load: It includes trams, cars, trolley, buses and railways.

LOAD CURVES
• The load on power plants will always be changing with time and will not be constant
because consumer of electric power will use the power as and when required.
• Load curve is graphical representation between load in kW and time.
• It shows variation of load on the power station.
• If the time is in hours then the load curve is known as daily load curve.
• If the time is in days, the load curve is known as monthly load curve and if the time is
in months, the load curve is known as yearly or annual load curve.

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• The daily load curve will be different for different type of consumers and different
localities. These load curves may show different pattern during summer, winter and
rainy season.

The combined daily load curve for all types of consumers is shown in figure (a) and the
approximated curve for simplicity is shown in figure (b).

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• Load duration curve is simply a re-arrangement of daily load curve with loads setup in
descending order of magnitude.
• The load duration curve indicates for how many hours a certain load is required in a
day

TERMS AND FACTORS

Connected load: Connected load is the sum of ratings in kilowatts (kW) of equipment
installed in the consumer‟s premises.
• The connected loads in the premises of a consumer are shown in figure. Total load
connected in the consumer‟s premises:
= 40 + 1000 + 60 + 40 + 20 + 500 + 25 + 60 = 1745W

Demand: The demand of an installation or system is the load that drawn from the source of
supply at the receiving terminals averaged over a suitable and specified interval of time.
Demand is expressed in kilowatts (kW) or other suitable units.
Maximum demand or Peak load: It is the maximum load which a consumer uses at any
time. It can be less than or equal to connected load.

• If all the equipment fitted in consumer‟s premises run to their fullest extent
simultaneously then the maximum demand will be equal to connected load. But

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generally the actual maximum demand is less than the connected load because all the
devices never run at full load at the same time.
1. Load Factor
• It is defined as the ratio of the average load to the peak load during a certain
prescribed period of time.
• The load factor of a power plant should be high so that the total capacity of the plant
is utilized for the maximum period that will result in lower cost of the electricity being
generated. It is always less than unity.
• High load factor is a desirable quality. Higher load factor means greater average load,
resulting in greater number of power units generated for a given maximum demand.
Thus, the fixed cost, which is proportional to the maximum demand, can be
distributed over a greater number of units (kWh) supplied.
• This will lower the overall cost of the supply of electric energy.

2. Utility Factor

• It is the ratio of the units of electricity generated per year to the capacity of the plant
installed in the station.
• It can also be defined as the ratio of maximum demand of a plant to the rated capacity
of the plant.
• Supposing the rated capacity of a plant is 200 mW. The maximum load on the plant is
100 mW at load factor of 80 per cent, then the utility will be = (100 × 0.8)/(200) =
40%
3. Plant Operating Factor
• It is the ratio of the duration during which the plant is in actual service, to the total
duration of the period of time considered.
4. Plant Capacity Factor
• It is the ratio of the average loads on a machine or equipment to the rating of the
machine or equipment, for a certain period of time considered.
• Since the load and diversity factors are not involved with „reserve capacity‟ of the
power plant, a factor is needed which will measure the reserve, likewise the degree of
utilization of the installed equipment.

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• For this, the factor “Plant factor, Capacity factor or Plant Capacity factor” is defined
as,
• Plant Capacity Factor = (Actual kWh Produced)/(Maximum Possible Energy that
might have produced during the same period)
• Thus the annual plant capacity factor will be,
• = (Annual kWh produced)/[Plant capacity (kW) × hours of the year]
• The difference between load and capacity factors is an indication of reserve capacity.

5. Demand Factor
• The actual maximum demand of a consumer is always less than his connected load
since all the appliances in his residence will not be in operation at the same time or to
their fullest extent.
• This ratio of' the maximum demand of a system to its connected load is termed as
demand factor. It is always less than unity.
6. Diversity Factor
• Supposing there is a group of consumers. It is known from experience that the
maximum demands of the individual consumers will not occur at one time.
• The ratio of the sum of the individual maximum demands to the maximum demand of
the total group is known as diversity factor. It is always greater than unity.
• High diversity factor (which is always greater than unity) is also a desirable quality.
With a given number of consumers, higher the value of diversity factor, lower will be
the maximum demand on the plant, since,

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• Diversity factor = Sum of the individual maximum Demands/Maximum demand of

the total group
• The capacity of the plant will be smaller, resulting in fixed charges.
7. Load Curve
• It is a curve showing the variation of power with time. It shows the value of a specific
load for each unit of the period covered. The unit of time considered may be hour,
days, weeks, months or years.
8. Load Duration Curve
• It is the curve for a plant showing the total time within a specified period, during
which the load equaled or exceeded the values shown.
9. Dump Power
• This term is used in hydro plants and it shows the power in excess of the load
requirements and it is made available by surplus water.
10. Firm Power
• It is the power, which should always be available even under emergency conditions.
11. Prime Power
• It is power, may be mechanical, hydraulic or thermal that is always available for
conversion into electric power.
12. Cold Reserve
• It is that reserve generating capacity which is not in operation but can be made
available for service.
13. Hot Reserve
 It is that reserve generating capacity which is in operation but not in service.
14. Spinning Reserve
• It is that reserve generating capacity which is connected to the bus and is ready to take
the load.
15. Plant Use Factor
• This is a modification of Plant Capacity factor in that only the actual number of hours
that the plant was in operation is used.
• Thus Annual Plant Use factor is,
= (Annual kWh produced) / [Plant capacity (kW) × number of hours of plant
operation]

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FACTOR EFFECTING POWER PLANT DESIGN

Following are the factor effecting while designing a power plant.
(1) Location of power plant
(2) Availability of water in power plant
(3) Availability of labour nearer to power plant
(4) Land cost of power plant
(5) Low operating cost
(6) Low maintenance cost
(7) Low cost of energy generation
(8) Low capital cost

Environmental Pollution:
The power plant pollutants of major concern are:
A. From fossil power plants B. From nuclear power plants
(i) Sulphur oxide (i) Radioactivity release
(ii) Nitrogen oxides (ii) Radioactive wastes
(iii) Carbon oxide (iii) Thermal pollution.
(iv) Thermal pollution
(v) Particulate matter.

Pollution from Thermal Power Plants

• Besides this, pollutants such as lead and hydrocarbons are contributed by automobiles.
• The air pollution in a large measure is caused by the thermal power plants burning
conventional fuels (coal, oil or gas).
• The combustible elements of the fuel are converted to gaseous products and non-
combustible elements to ash.
• Thus the emission can be classified as follow:
1. Gaseous emission
2. Particulate emission
3. Solid waste emission
4. Thermal pollution (or waste heat)
1. Gaseous Emission and Its Control:
• The various gaseous pollutants are:

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(i) Sulphur dioxide

(ii) Hydrogen sulphide
(iii) Oxides of nitrogen
(iv) Carbon monoxide etc.
2. Particulate Emission and Its Control:
• The particulate emission, in power plants using fossil fuels, is easiest to control.
• Particulate matter can be either dust (particles having a diameter of 1 micron) which
do not settle down or particles with a diameter of more than 10 microns which settle
down to the ground.
• The particulate emission can be classified as follows:
• Smoke: It composes of stable suspension of particles that have a diameter of less than
10 microns and are visible only in the aggregate.
• Fumes: These are very small particles resulting from chemical reactions and are
normally composed of metals and metallic oxides.
• Fly-ash: These are ash particles of diameters of 100 microns or less.
3. Solid Waste Disposal
• From the fossil fuel fired power plants considerable amount of solids in the form of
ash is discharged. This ash is removed as bottom ash or slug from the furnace.
• The fossil fuel fired system also discharges solid wastes such as calcium and
magnesium salts generated by absorption of SO2 and SO3 by reactant like lime stone.
4. Thermal Pollution
• Discharge of thermal energy into waters is commonly called Thermal pollution.
• Thermal power stations invariably will have to discharge enormous amounts of
energy into water since water is one medium largely used to condense steam.
• If this heated water from condensers is discharged into lakes or rivers, the water
temperature goes up. The ability of water to hold dissolved gases goes down when the
temperature increases.
• At about 35°C, the dissolved oxygen will be so low that the aquatic life will dies
• One of the Govt. Regulation states that „the max. temp of outlet water should not be
more than 1˚C above atmospheric temperature
How to reduce Thermal Pollution
• While considering the efficiency of the thermal plant, it is desirable that the water
from a river or lake is pumped through the condenser and fed back to the source.

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• The rise of temperature will be about 10°C which is highly objectionable from the
pollution point of view.
• Hence, this waste heat which is removed from the condenser will have to be thrown
into the atmosphere and not into the water source, in this direction following methods
can be adopted :
1. Construction of a separate lake
2. Cooling pond
3. Cooling towers.
Pollution from Nuclear Power Plants (NPP)
• The various types of pollution from nuclear power plants are:
(i) Radioactive pollution
(ii) Waste from reactor (solid, liquid, gases)
(iii) Thermal pollution.
i. Radioactive pollution: This is the most dangerous and serious type of pollution.
This is due to radioactive elements and fissionable products in reactor. The best
way to abate is the radioactive shield around the reactor.
ii. Waste from reactor: Due to nuclear reactor reaction nuclear wastes (mixtures of
various Beta and Gamma emitting radioactive isotopes with various half lives) are
produced which cannot be neutralised by any chemical method.
• If the waste is discharged in the atmosphere, air and water will be contaminated
beyond the tolerable limits
• Some methods of storage or disposal of radioactive waste materials are discussed
below :
1. Storage tanks. The radioactive wastes can be buried underground (very deep
below the surface) in corrosion resistance tanks located in isolated areas. With
the passage of time these will become stable isotopes.
2. Dilution. After storing for a short time, low energy wastes are diluted either in
liquid or gaseous materials. After dilution, they are disposed off in sewer
without causing hazard.
3. Sea disposal. This dilution can be used by adequately diluting the wastes and
this method is being used by the British.
4. Atmospheric dilution. This method can be used for gaseous radioactive
wastes. But solid particles from the gaseous wastes must be filtered out
thoroughly since they are the most dangerous with higher half lives.
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5. Absorption by the soil. Fission products are disposed off by this method. The
radioactive particles are absorbed by the soil particles. But this is expensive.
6. Burying is sea. Solid nuclear wastes can be stored is concrete blocks which
are hurried in the sea. This method is expensive but no further care is needed.

Pollution from Hydro-Power Plants (HPP)

• Hydro-electric and Solar Power Generation plants have no polluting effect on the
environment.
• The hydro-electric project does not pollute the atmosphere at all, but it can be argued
that the solar power stations in the long run may upset the balance in nature. To
extend the argument to the logical end, imagine a very vast area of land is covered by
solar collectors of different forms. Then the minimum required sun's rays may not
reach the earth's surface.
• This will certainly kill the vegetation on the earth and also the bacteria which are
destroyed by sun's rays may survive giving rise to new types of health problems.
• Further, the evaporation of water and consequent rains may change their cycles.
Added to these, the average temperatures of the earth and ocean may change.
• This may result in new balances among the living creatures which cannot be easily
predicted. Since we do not envisage such a large scale coverage of earth's surface in
the near future, we can safely state that the solar energy power plants do not pollute
the atmosphere

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