A.

Indira
National Power Training Institute
Basic Principle
 Outline of a Thermal Power Plant
 Power Plant Cycles

 Any COAL FIRED Power Generating Plant operates on the following four
basic cycles:

 Coal & Ash cycle

 Air & Flue Gas cycle

 Water & Steam cycle

 Cooling Water cycle

Coal-Ash Cycle
Air-Flue Gas Cycle
 Air-Flue Gas cycle
 The flue gas from the furnace is fed to the economiser and the Air- Pre
heaters (APH).
 Then from the Electrostatic Precipitator (ESP) the flue gas is vent out
into the atmosphere by ID fans through the chimney.
 The ESP collects all the suspended ash particles by high voltage
discharge. The ash thus obtained is the second variety of ash and is
called Fly Ash. This fly ash, as the bottom ash, is converted into slurry.
The slurry (of bottom ash + fly ash) is collected in the Ash Slurry
Sump. The slurry from the sump by a set of three ash slurry pumps is
sent to the Ash Pond.
 This ash is used in several applications like cement industry,
manufacture of bricks, etc.
 Air-Flue Gas Cycle.
 Air is drawn from the atmosphere by a forced draught fan through the Air
Pre-heater, in which it is heated by the heat of flue gases passing to chimney
and then admitted to the furnaces. The flue gases after passing around
Boiler tubes and Super heater tubes are drawn by the induced draught fan
through the dust collector (Electrostatic Precipitator), Economizer and Air
Pre-heater and finally exhausted to the atmosphere through chimney.
COAL HANDLING PLANT
1.

Coal Handling plant
Coal transportation
By railway (Wagons)
 By Roadway (Trucks)
 By waterway (Ships)
 By Ropeway (normally used in hilly areas)
 By Conveyor.
2. Coal unloading( By Wagon tippler or MGR system)
3. Coal weighing (Done by electronic weighing bridge)
4. Coal flow regulating (Done by vibrating feeders)
5. Coal conveying (Done by conveyor belt)
6. Coal Screening (Done by vibrating screens)
7. Coal Crushing or Sizing (Done in crusher house where coal is crushed
to a size of 20 – 25 mm)
8. Coal Storage (Raw coal bunker)
 Coal Handling plant
• Coal transportation
• Coal weighing (Done by electronic weighing bridge)
• Coal unloading
• Coal flow regulating (Done by vibrating feeders)
• Coal conveying (Done by conveyor belt)
• Coal Screening (Done by vibrating screens)
• Coal Crushing or Sizing (Done in crusher house)
• Crushed Coal Storage
• Coal Reclaiming
• Coal Conveying (Done by conveyor belt)
• Coal Distribution
• Coal Storage (Raw coal bunker)
Coal Handling Plant
 Raw coal is fed into the Coal Handling Plant (CHP) after
which it is sent to the coal bunker. Then through the coal
feeder the coal is fed into the pulveriser / crusher where the
coal (50mm dia.) is pulverized. After that the pulverized coal
is fed through the 24(6x4) coal burners by primary air fans
into the boiler furnace.
 After proper combustion (determined by the 3-Ts :
Temperature, Time and Turbulence) of coal, ash is formed.
This ash is of two types. The heavier variety is called the
Bottom Ash while the lighter variety passes out as flue gas
into the Economiser. From the Economiser also bottom ash
is obtained. The bottom ash is obtained as clinkers which are
crushed into powder form by the scrapper-clinker grinder
conveyer. Then the bottom ash thus obtained is converted to
slurry by water through the ash water pumps.
 Coal Transportation

 By railway (Wagons)

 By Roadway (Trucks)

 By waterway (Ships)

 By Ropeway (normally used in hilly areas)

 By Conveyor.
 Coal Unloading
• By Wagon Tripler

a. In this the wagons are Box type

are of two types 1.Rope driven
2. Gear driven
• By MGR System (marry go round)

a. Wagons are of hopper type and the doors are opened by

pneumatic actuator.
 Crusher house

 Coal size 300mm to 400mm received from mines

 In crusher house coal is crushed by hammering and crushed to a size

of 20 mm to 25mm

 All the magnetic particles are separated by magnetic separator.

Selection of coal
 The selection of coal for a power plant depends on a number of factors such
as calorific value, weatherability, sulphur content, ash content, particle size,
grindability index.

 Calorific value represents the amount of energy in a given mass.

 Weatherability is a measure of the ability of coal to withstand exposure to

environment without excessive crumbling.

 Sulphur is one of the combustible elements in the coal and produces energy
but its primary combustion product sulphur dioxide is a health hazard.
Sulphur content of coal should therefore be low( preferably below 1 %)
CONVEYOR BELT
Belt Material—Nylon/Nylon
Fabric
Belt Speed —2.03 m/s
Belt Width --- 40 inch, 36 inch
Belt Carrying Capacity – 500
ton/hr.
Troughing Angel = 28o

It is used
for
carrying
the coal to
crusher.
Selection of coal
 Ash is an impurity, produces no heat and is to be removed from the furnace
and disposed off.

 Indian coal has high ash content which reduces boiler thermal efficiency
because heat loss through unburnt carbon, excessive clinker formation and
heat in ashes is considerably more.Thus use of coal with high ash content
increases the plant size and transportation cost.
 Magnetic separator

 Larger magnetic impurities can

be removed by it.

 It consists of electromagnetic
pulley, fixed electromagnet.

 it is placed above the conveyer

carrying coal
 Crusher

 Primary crusher: slow speed

crusher. consists of crushing
roll, breaker plate assembly &
power transmission unit. It
crushes by impact, shear &
compression.
 Secondary crusher: consists of
four rows of crushing rings. It
employs centrifugal force of
swing rings to crush coal
Vibrating screen
Screens are used to bypass the
smaller (less than 20 mm) coal
particles directly to the conveyor.
Vibrating screens are used to
send the coal particles of more
than 20 mm size to crusher.
High frequency low magnitude
vibration given to the screen to
make the coal clear of wedged
particles.
 Milling plant

Coal from bunker comes to mill where the coal size is further reduced to

65µ to 70µ or(75% passing through 200 British sieve) in the coal mill.
 Coal Mill

 2 rings are there. In between the 2

rings there are 9 balls.

 During working condition the

bottom ring is rotated along with
the balls while the top ring
remains fixed.

 After pulverization PA fan blows

the pulverized coal to the furnace.
 BALL MILL

Lead antimony grinding

media with aluminum
powder.
26
Why water treatment?
 Raw water contains many dissolved minerals and organic
materials.
 At high temperature certain minerals leave scaling on the
tube metal of the boiler and cause permanent damage.
 Some dissolved minerals leads to corrosion of tube metals.
Some leads to foaming
 At high pressure and temperature an element, silica can be
carried away with steam causing damage to turbine low
pressure stage.
 A Thermal Power Station needs water of varying quality for
different process and hence the requirement.
 The performance and life expectancy of the station greatly
depends on water chemistry compliance.
27
Type of water treatment
 the type of demineralization process chosen for a
power station depends on three main factors :
 The quality of the raw water.
 The degree of deionisation i.e. treated water quality
 Selectivity of resins.

28
Steps of treatment process
• Aeration of raw water
• Adding chemicals for bacteria removal
• Adding chemicals for sedimentation of suspended
particles
• Flocculation
• Filtration
• Ion Exchange process
• water treatment process is generally made up of two
sections :
– Pretreatment section
– Demineralisation section

29
What is pre treatment process?
 Pretreatment plant removes the suspended solids
 The coarse components, such as sand, silt etc, can be
removed from the water by simple sedimentation
 the non-separable solids (colloids) will not settle in any
reasonable time and must be floculated to produce the
large particles which are settle able.
 Flocculation is obtained by gentle and prolonged mixing
which converts the submicroscopic coagulated particle into
discrete, visible & suspended particles.
 This operation is done by flash mixer in the clarifloculator.
 Proper pre treatment reduce loading on anion and cation
exchanger.

30
 Water Treatment Plant
 Pre Water treatment
a. Suspended solids, colloids, organic matter are removed.

 Post water treatment

a. Dissolved solids are removed
(DM Plant)
 Pre treatment of Water
Following process are carried out in pretreatment

(i) Screening

(ii) Storage of raw water

(iii) Aeration

(iv) Chlorination

(v) Coagulation and flocculation

(vi) Filtration
 Raw water to Clarified water

Raw water bay

RW make up pumps

Clarifi Clariflocculator Cl2 dosing

ed
water
Lime dosing

Alum dosing
Flash
mixer

16 June 2018 PMI Revision 00 33

 Aeration
 The raw water, after being
taken from the source, first
passed through the Aerator.
The aerator is a stepped cone
structure. During sliding,
organic gases and many
dissolved gases escape due to
the impact.
 Coagulation and flocculation
COAGULATION:-

Is a process by which small particles

in suspension state join together to
form a large agglomerate

FLOCCULATION:-

Ferric and aluminum salts when

added in water forms insoluble
hydroxides which comes out as
floppy flocus
 Chlorination
Is a practice of injecting chlorine
into the raw water soon after it enters
the plant, generally at a dosing rate of
2-5mg/l

This destroys the high bacterial

count, kills algae, reduces color, also
oxidizes and precipitates iron and
manganese.
Clarified water to Filtered water

Clarified water Sand filters

FW DW
sump sump

Clari-flocculator
Post-chlorination
Cl2

Cl2 House FW DW
pumps pumps

Filtered water

DM water To Township for

for Plant DM PLANT drinking water
purpose PMI Revision 00 37
DM Plant
 These Plants are designed based on
the ion exchange technique .
 It mainly consists of two mild steel
rubber-lined /FRP corrosion free
pressure vessels which are
internally connected in series
called cation and anion exchanger.
 It also has mixed bed exchangers
which filled with strong acidic
cations exchange resin and strongly
basic anion exchange resin in
mixed form.
 Through this process, dissolved
salts are removed from water to a
specified degree.
DM Water Storage
A TYPICAL BOILER
PRINCIPLES OF STEAM GENERATION
 Boiler
 According to the Indian Boiler Act. 1923, a Boiler (Steam Generator) is a
closed pressure vessel with capacity exceeding 22.75 liters used for generating
steam under pressure.

 The Steam Generator (Boiler) is the major part of a Thermal power plant,
which provides the energy required for consequent steam generation. The
furnace of the boiler creates the environment for combustion of pulverized coal
particles, fed to it from coal mill leading to the formation of flue gas, which in
turn contributes for the entire heat value required in the plant
 Boiler and its auxiliaries
The various parts of the boiler are as follows:
1) Economizer.
2) Boiler drum.
3) Water tubes.
4) Headers.
5) Super heaters.
6) Reheaters.
7) Attemperator
8) Air-preheater.
9) Draught system
1) Economiser:- The purpose of the economiser is to preheat the boiler fee water
before it is introduced into the steam drum by recovering the heat from flue
gases leaving the boiler.. The justifiable of the economizer depends on the
gain in efficiency which in turn depends on the gas temperature out of the
boiler & feed water temperature to the boiler. Basically it is nothing but a
tube-&-shell type heat exchanger.

2) Boiler Drum:- The The function of the steam drum is to separate the water
from the steam generated in the furnace walls and to reduce the dissolved
solid contents of the steam to below 1 ppm.The drum is located in the upper
front of the boiler.

3) Headers:- The boiler contains two headers- Bottom Ring Header and Top
Ring Header.
ECONOMISER
4) Superheater:-Super heaters are provided in the boiler to raise the steam
temp. above the saturation temp by absorbing heat from the flue gas.
Superheaters are of two types-
i) Radiant super heaters
ii) Convective/Primary super heaters
Radiant Superheaters
I) Platen superheaters
ii)Final superheaters
5) Reheater:- Reheaters are used to raised the temp. of the steam coming out
from the outlet of the H.P turbine to its superheated temp. at constant pr. to
supply super heated steam to the I.P. and L.P. turbine
6) Attemperator:-Attemperator is also known as de-superheater where water of high
purity is spread through the venturi throat ,gets vaporized & cools the super- heated
steam. It is located between two super heater headers.

7) Air Preheaters:- Air Preheater is an important boiler auxiliary, which primarily

preheats the combustion air for rapid and efficient combustion in the furnace. The air
heaters recovers the waste heat from the outgoing flue gas of a boiler and transfers
the same to the combustion air .

8) Draught System:-In a boiler of any type it is essential to supply a controlled amount

of air to the furnace for effective combustion of the fuel and to evacuate the flue
gases formed in the furnace through the various heat transfer areas of the boiler.
BOILER DRUM
I. Forced draught fan: Forced draught fans supply air necessary for fuel
combustion

II. Primary air fan :These are the large high pressure fans which supply the air
needed to dry and transport coal either directly from the coal mills to the furnace or
after the milling

III. Induced draught fans: Induced draught fans evacuate combustion products
from the boiler furnace by creating sufficient negative pressure to establish a slight
suction in the furnace

IV. Gas recirculation fans: GR fans draw gas from a point between economizer
outlet and air heater and discharge it into the bottom of the furnace.
Water- Steam Cycle
Water-Steam Cycle
 The steam coming out of the turbine is condensed and the condensate is
extracted from the condenser by the condensate extraction pump.
 The condensate is then forced to the Low Pressure feed water heaters where
its temperature is raised by the heat from bled steam (steam extracted from
extraction point of turbine). The feed water is now pumped through the
deaerator to high pressure feed water heaters where it gets heated by the
heat from bled steam extracted at suitable point of the steam turbine.
 The function of the Deaerator is to reduce the dissolved oxygen content in
the condensate.
 The feed water is then pumped into boiler through economiser in which it is
further heated by the heat of flue gas passing through it on the way to
chimney.
TURBINE
Turbine is that part of steam
cycle in a power plant where
the expansion of steam takes
place.

.
Turbine & auxiliary section
Flow path of turbine & auxiliary section
CONDENSER

CONDENSATE EXTRACTION PUMP(CEP)

DEAERATOR

CHEMICAL DOSING HOUSE

BOILER FEED PUMP(BFP)

Cooling water cycle
Condenser
 Functions of condenser are:

 Condenses the turbine exhaust steam to water for reuse in the

cycle

 Provides lowest heat rejection temperature for the steam

cycle.
 Condensate Extraction Pumps
 The function of these pumps is to pumps out the condensate to the
deaerator through ejectors, gland steam cooler, and L.P. heaters. These
pumps have four stages and since the suction is at a negative pressure,

special arrangements have been made for providing sealing.

 Deaerator
 The presence of certain gases, principally oxygen, carbon-
dioxide and ammonia, dissolved in water is generally
considered harmful because of their corrosive attack on
metals, particularly at elevated temperatures.

 Function is to remove dissolved gases from the feed water by

mechanical means.
1.Boiler feed pump
Boiler feed Pump
 Boiler Feed Pump

 To give the required pressure to the

Feed water before entering into boiler

 Horizontal barrel type multi stage pump located at Zero

meter height.
 Generator:-
 The mechanical energy of
turbine is transferred into
the electrical energy with
the help of generator
placed adjacent to the
former.
 The Turbo generator is a 3 phase horizontal mounted 2 pole
cylindrical rotor type m/c driven by a directly coupled steam
turbine at 3000 rpm.

 The m/c is manufactured as per design of manufacturer and

conforms to National & International Electro technical
Commission Standard.

 The generator consists of the following main components &

associated system.
 STATOR
Stator core
Stator winding
Terminal bushing
Bus duct

ROTOR

Rotor shaft
Rotor winding
Cooling fan
Retaining rings
Slip rings
Generator bearings
 Brush gear
TRANSFORMER
TYPES OF TRANSFORMER USED IN POWER PLANT:-
 Generator transformer
 Distribution transformer
 Booster transformer
 Auto-transformer
 Unit auxiliary transformer
 Station service transformer
 DIFFERENT TRANSFORMERS

• Generator Transformer (GT)

• Station Transformer (ST)
• Unit Auxiliary Transformer (UAT)

Generator Transformer -The generator is connected to this transformer by

means of isolated bus ducts. This transformer is used to step up the generating
voltage to the required grid voltage. It is also provided with off circuit/on load
taps on the high voltage side. This transformer has elaborate cooling system
consisting of number of oil pumps and cooling fans apart from various
accessories.
Switch yard
Various equipments of 33 kv switch-yard :
CIRCUIT BREAKERS :
- Makes or automatically breaks the electrical circuits under
Loaded condition.
1.Minimum Oil Circuit Breaker
2.Gas Circuit Breaker(SF6)
ISOLATORS :
- Opens or closes the electrical circuits under No-load
conditions.
INSTRUMENT TRANSFORMERS :
- For stepping-down the electrical parameter (Voltage or
Current) to a lower and safe value for Metering and
Protection logics.
1. Current Transformer
2. Potential Transformer
 EARTH SWITCH :
- Used to connect the charged body to ground to discharge the trapped charge
to have a safe maintenance zone.

LIGHTNING ARRESTORS :
- Safe guards the equipment by discharging the high currents due to
Lightning.

BUS BAR :
- Conductors to which a number of circuits are connected.
 Generators

Form of Electricity System

Transmission
utility

Sub-transmission
utilities

Distribution
utilities

Consumers
In a Thermal Power plant chemical energy is converted
into Electrical energy through a series of transformation

Chemical Energy

Heat energy

Mechanical Energy

Electrical Energy