Introduction A power plant is assembly of systems or subsystems to generate electricity, that is, power with economy and requirements,

the power plant itself must be useful economically and environmental friendly. The various types of power plants are: A thermal power plant is a power station where the prime mover that is turbine i s driven using the superheated steam. Coal is used to convert the water to super heated steam which has a high pressure that is the reason which makes the turbin e rotate. The thermal power plant works on RANKINE CYCLE[1] . Thermal power plant is a very broad category and it has various sub types like c oal, nuclear, geothermal, and solar thermal electric power plants. The power pla nt is categorized on the basis of the fuel used. This fuel used is burnt in the combustion chamber and the waste heat from this combustion can be used to reheat the steam generated which will be discussed in details later. Power plants burn ing coal, fuel oil, or natural gas are often termed as the Fossil Fuel Power Pla nt. Commercially the power plants use three phase electric generators which produces the Alternating Current, at the Indian standards that is 50 to 60Hz. And usuall y large industries which need a large amount of power supply have their own powe r plant establishments like the cement industry or the aluminum industries. ABOUT DSPM, TPS, CSPGCL, KORBA (east) Dr. Shyam Prasad Mukharjee, 250x2, Thermal Power Station, CSPGCL, Korba (E) is i ts present identification. After formation of Chhatisgarh State and looking to the power crisis in the coun try, it has been decided by the STATE GOVERNMENT that CHHATISGARH is to be made p ower hub due to availability of natural resources in ample amount which is requir ed for Thermal Power Plant. The total cost of construction of DSPM TPS was estimated to be 1572.616 Crores f or 2 units of 250 MW. This was financed by M/S Rural Electrification Co. Ltd. Some important milestones of the DSPM TPS KORBA (E) are: S.No. ACTIVITY U#1 U#2 01 Drum Lift 22-06-05 18-11-05 02 Boiler Light Up 16-01-07 15-06-07 03 Steam Blowing 25-03-07 23-11-07 04 Turbine Barring 28-03-07 23-11-07 05 Oil Synchronization 30-03-07 11-12-07 06 Trial Run Completion 27-01-09 30-11-08 The DSPM TSP KORBA (E) had ranked 3rd overall, i.e., inducing the private sector power plant, and as number 1 in the government sector. The efficiency target of the power plant for the year 2011-2012 is 93%, which is highest among all the government aided power plants for the given year. The reason for korba being a hub for power plants is that it has cheap transport ation available which makes transport of coal economical, it has abundant raw ma terials located nearby like coal, water sources and the cheap labors too. ESSENTIALS OF A STEAM POWER PLANT 1. A furnace to burn the fuel. 2. Steam generator or boiler containing water. Heat generated in boiler is used to convert the water to steam. 3. Main power unit such as turbine which is used to convert the heat energy of steam and perform work. 4. Piping system to convey water. In addition to the above equipment, the plant require various auxiliaries and ac cessories depending on availability water, fuel and the service for which plant is intended..

The flow sheet of thermal power plant basically consist of four main circuits: i) Feed water and steam circuit ii) Coal and ash circuit iii) Air and gas circuit iv) Cooling water circuit Steam is generated in boiler expanded in prime mover then condensed in condenser and fed to the boiler again. The different types of components used in the steam power plant are as follows: I) High pressure boiler II) Prime mover III) Condensers and cooling towers IV) Ash and dust handling system V) Feed water purification plant VI) Pumping system VII) Air preheater, economizer, super heater and other auxiliary systems

Functioning Of Thermal Power Plant The fundamental process of the power plant working follows the RANKINE CYCLE, an d further the functioning of power plant can be divided into various steps as fo llows: 1) Water intake: Firstly, water is taken into the boiler through a water source. If water is available in a plenty in the region, then the source is an open pon d or river. If water is scarce, then it is recycled and the same water is used o ver and over again. 2)Coal Crushing: in this process of coal milling raw coal is brought and milled into the small powdered form. 3) Boiler heating: The boiler is heated with the help of coal. A furnace is used to heat the fuel and supply the heat produced to the boiler. The increase in te mperature helps in the transformation of water into steam. 4) Steam Turbine: The steam generated in the boiler is sent through a steam turb ine. The turbine has blades that rotate when high velocity steam flows across th em. This rotation of turbine blades is used to generate electricity. 5) Generator: A generator is connected to the steam turbine. When the turbine ro tates, the generator produces electricity which is then passed on to the power d istribution systems. 6) Special mountings: There is some other equipment like the economizer and air pre-heater. An economizer uses the heat from the exhaust gases to heat the feed water. An air pre-heater heats the air sent into the combustion chamber to impro ve the efficiency of the combustion process. 7) Ash collection system: There is a separate residue and ash collection system in place to collect all the waste materials from the combustion process and to p revent them from escaping into the atmosphere. 8) Condensation: The steam from the turbines is condensed for the reuse by the p rocess of condensation. Apart from this, there are various other monitoring systems and instruments in p lace to keep track of the functioning of all the devices. This prevents any haza rds from taking place in the plant.

1) WATER INTAKE: The water intake in the DSPM TPS Korba (E) is taken from DARRI DAM, this dam is situated on the river HASDEO BARRAGE in Korba district itself. All the four powe r plants in Korba draw their raw water from this river itself. The intake water is then treated in the plant campus itself and is checked for u

nwanted minerals and the PH level of water, this is of a great significance as t he addition of unwanted minerals and inaccurate PH value of water can lead to th e corrosion of the transport tubes of water. So, the water is demineralised and the PH value is brought as close to 7 as possible. This process is done in various steps and the solid impurities in the water are cleaned through a level of filters and the water is made as pure as possible and is kept demineralised. The process of the water purification is done through some traditional methods l ike sedimentation, filtration, use of alum or other substances which help in the settling of the physical impurities, and then this traditional method is follow ed by some series of water checks which keeps a check on the PH level as well as the amount of the minerals in the water and gives a real time notification to t he control room. 2) COAL CRUSHING PROCESS: Milling is the process in which raw coal is grinded and converted into powdered form, the size and weight of this powdered coal has to be very much moderate as if the powdered coal is of very small size it would not provide enough heat and if the coal is very heavy or large it would settle down in the boiler without pr oviding full combustion. Hence the size of the coal is of a large significance f rom the thermal efficiencys aspect. In DSPM korba, the coal was brought direct to the campus of the plant through a railway line. This coal was collected in heaps and then transported to the mills , the total number of mills in the power plant was 14 out of which 10 were worki ng on a full load condition and the rest were on standby condition for the emerg ency purpose. The coal which was collected in heaps was sent to the mills using the rollers. The type of mill in the plant was BALL AND RACE mill. In this mill the coal passes between the rotating elements again and again until it has pulve rized to desired degree of fineness. The coal is crushed between two moving surf aces namely ball and race. The raw coal supplied falls on the inner side of race s. The moving balls and races catch the coal between them and crush it to a powd er. 3) BOILER HEATING This process is the one which converts the demineralised water to steam. The water from the water purification plant was sent to the boiler, the water is first passed through the economizer and then sent to the water drum. From the w ater drum the water is fed to the inlet of the water tubes where the water event ually rises into water walls. The walls of the boiler was made up of metal tube s which used to carry the water and the outer side of these walls were covered by a thick layer of insulator due to which the heat loss is minimized. And inside the boiler, the Primary Air which brought coal with itself via primar y air fans was ignited. The primary air containing coal enters the boiler from f our corners with high pressure which makes a fire ball in the centre of the boil er and the combustion of coal takes place. The heat is generated from ignition o f coal continuously which is used to heat up the water contained in the water wa lls by the method of thermal radiation. This heated water slowly gets converted to the steam, the steam then rises up the water wall and heads towards the water drum. In the drum, the water and steam are separated and the water gets collect ed in the drum. The saturated steam is then fed to the superheater, superheater is the hottest part of the combustion gases as they exit. The water collected in the drum is already high in temperature and is sent back to ring header[2] , th e water in the ring header is sent to the water walls in priority basis to avoid the loss of heat in the water. This helps in improvising thermal efficiency of the plant. And the steam which was separated at the water drum is then passed th rough the superheater which increases its temperature even further and this stea m is then fed to the HP turbines. The coal is burned into ashes and the ashes are settled down which are sent to t he ash management system. The hot air flowing inside the boiler is known as the flu gas. This flu gas has a lot of heat and not utilizing this heat leads to a great loss

of thermal energy, hence with more and more advancement in the technologies the utilization of heat energy of flu gas has increased. The utilization is done th rough the use of various equipments like economizer, air preheater, reheater, et c. 4) STEAM TURBINE GENERATORS

The steam turbine generator is the primary power conversion component. It conver ts thermal energy of steam to electrical energy via steam generators. Turbine and Generator are two separate components, turbine to convert thermal en ergy to mechanical energy via rotating mechanical devices and this mechanical en ergy to electrical energy via the generator. The operation of steam turbine generator involves the expansion of steam turbine involves the expansion of steam through enormous stages in the turbine causing the turbine rotor to turn the generator rotor. The generator rotor is magnetized and its rotation generates the electrical power in the generator stator. During our training we were given a broader view about the turbines and overview of all the other systems of the power plant. So, the detailed turbine informati on are as follows: Thermal energy of steam is converted into mechanical energy by expanding the ste am through turbines. The expansion of steam occurs in two types of stages: 1. Impulse stage 2. Reaction stage 1. Impulse Stages: An impulse stage consist of stationary nozzle with rotating buckets or blades th e steam expands through nozzle, increasing in velocity as a result of decrease i n pressure. The steam then strikes rotating buckets and performs work on rotatin g buckets which in turn decrease steam velocity. The impulse stages can be grou ped together in velocity compound stages or pressure compound stages. a. Velocity compound stage: Steam flows through nozzle decreasing its pressure and increasing its velocity, steam the strikes rotating buckets which decreases its velocity and then steam s trikes the stationary buckets and is directed back to its original direction and steam again strikes the rotating buckets which further decreases its velocity a nd consequently the steam velocity is completely dissipated. b. Pressure compound stage: Involves several set of nozzle with small pressure drop across each set of nozzl e and complete velocity dissipation in each row of rotating buckets. 2. Reaction Stages Ideal reaction stage would consist of rotating nozzle with stationary buckets. I n practical application reaction stage would consist of both rotating and statio nary nozzle. The steam expands through stationary nozzle where it expands furthe r. The rotating force from the initial expansion and expansion through rotating blades is imparted to the rotating nozzles. The expansion of steam in stationary nozzle of the reaction turbine is an impuls e action. Therefore reaction stage in an actual turbine application is combinati on of impulse and reaction principles. Steam expansion The expansion of heat through turbine results in heat and pressure energy conver sion to kinetic energy in steam jets. The kinetic energy is changed to mechanica l enrgy in rotating buckets or blades. Steam enters turbine at 16.63Mpa , 537.8 degree C, 3396.711 J/g. the steam expan ds through high pressure turbine and exhausts the turbine to the cold turbine li ne at 3.79Mpa, 337.8 degree C, and 3066.92 J/g. The steam then flows through the reheater of steam generator where it is reheated and returned to the inlet of i ntermediate pressure turbine at 3.45Mpa, 537.8 degree C, 3537.24 J/g. the steam then flows through intermediate pressure and low pressure turbine exhausting to

condenser at pressure of 5.08Kpa, with end point enthalpy of 2349.26J/g. The HP turbine efficiency is 78.65% LP and IP section combined efficiency is about of 90.20% Electrical Energy Generation The rotational mechanical energy is converted to electrical energy in the genera tor by rotation of the rotors magnetic field. Rotation of turbine turns the rotor of the generator, producing the electrical e nergy in the stator of generator. The generator rotor consist of field windings, an electrical DC is passed through windings causing a magnetic field to be form ed in the rotor. The magnetic field is rotated by turbine, surrounded by stator generator that includes copper conductors. The magnetic felid passes through the stator setting electrons in stator conductors in motion. The flow of electrons is called current and AC is generated. The stator consists of 3 groups of separate conductors in that the voltage and c urrent are generated. The conductors are arranged at 120 degrees from each other and are connected in series to form three sets of coils called phases. The volt age and current are generated in each of three phases are displaced in electrica l time by 120 degrees. Thus the power produced is called balanced three phase po wer. Turbine Types Steam turbines are divided into various types with various designations. Designa tions may indicate various combinations of turbine types that make up a turbine as well as turbine type. Pressure Reheat Designation The designation of turbine by a pressure may also involve the cycle arrangement with regard to reheat. For a large unit without reheat the steam may expand thro ugh initial section and then exhaust to another turbine. This later turbine may then exhaust to condenser or another process. In this arrangement the initial tu rbines is designated as High Pressure turbine and later turbine as a Low Pressur e turbine. For a single reheat cycle the steam from boiler flows to HP turbine, where it ex pands and exhausts back to boiler for reheating. The reheated steam flows to IP turbine or reheat turbine, where it expands and exhausts into crossover line, th at supplies steam to LP turbine and exhausts to condenser. For a double reheat cycle, the steam from boiler comes to HP turbine where it ex pands and is sent back to the boiler for reheating, this reheated steam comes ba ck to the IP turbine where it expands further and is again sent back to the boil er to reheat again and is the fed to the reheat turbine which forward the stream to the LP turbine where it expands and is finally fed to the condenser. Exhaust Conditions Two turbine exhaust based designations are: 1. Condensing Turbine 2. Non-Condensing Turbine The condensing turbine exhausts to the condenser where steam is expanded at sub atmospheric pressure. The LP turbines of a typical power plant are condensing tu rbines, in that they exhaust to surface steam condensers or to a direct condensi ng air cooled condenser. The condensing turbine have large exhaust areas since s team is expanded to low pressure extracting as much as possible the useful energ y before exhaust. The low pressure results in large volumetric expansions of ste am, requiring a large exhaust area to minimize the energy loss in the exhausting process. The HP, IP and reheat turbines of a typical thermal power plant are non conden sing turbines, they exhaust the steam above atmospheric pressure to another proc ess. The exit areas of non condensing turbines are smaller because of the higher exit pressure. Flow Designation Turbine can also be described by the number of direction steam flows to exhaust

from turbine. The number of path depends upon the amount of steam. A single flow turbine has steam flowing in one direction and exhausting in another direction. Small reheat turbines, mechanical drive turbines, reheat cycle high pressure, a nd reheat cycle intermediate pressure turbines typically employ single direction flow. Double flow turbines have two steam flow paths. The steam flows into centre of t urbine and flow into two opposite directions. This type of turbine is also calle d opposite flow turbine. Large reheat HP, IP and LP sections are typically doubl e flow turbines. Flow designations of triple flow, four flow, six flow, and eight flow are also u sed. These are typically used in LP section of plants. Extraction Types During expansion of steam through a turbine, removing steam from intermediate st age of turbine is called an extraction. In most power plants some seam is extrac ted from turbine expansion process and fed to heat exchangers for feed water hea ting. This type of extraction varies in pressure and flow as a function of load. This type o f extraction is uncontrolled, simple or non automatic extraction. Turbines supplying steam for process application typically must apply steam at a constant pressure. Since the pressure available varies with load, valving is in cluded in turbine steam expansion path to control pressure. This type of turbine is called controlled or automatic extraction type turbine. Some turbines have no extraction and are called non extraction type turbines. Shaft Orientation On the basis of shaft orientation turbines are divided into two types: 1. Tandem compound 2. Cross compound Tandem Compound unit has all turbines and generators in line, connected to same shaft and thus operate at same speed. The cross compound unit has two turbine generator alignments, this type of turbi ne is used to increase the turbine efficiency. The cross compound arrangement typically consist of high pressure and intermedia te pressure turbines operating at 3,600 RPM driving a generator. The exhaust ste am form intermediate pressure turbine crosses over to low pressure turbine that operates at 1800 RPM, driving a separate generator. The Low Pressure turbine ope rating at allow speed allows the use of longer last stage turbine blades with la st stage turbine blades with expansion to higher moisture percentages and less e xhaust losses. Based on the above types of the turbines, the turbine as DSPM TPS KORBA(E) was c ategorized as: SINGLE REHEAT CONDESNING DOBLE FLOW EXTRACTION TANDEM COMPOUND TURBINE The turbine was axial flow reaction type turbines. The number of stages of each type of turbine was: High Pressure Turbine: 25 stages Intermediate Pressure Turbine: 18 stages Low Pressure Turbine: 8x2 stages

Valves in steam turbines Main steam stop(throttle) valves The steam from steam generator flow to the main steam stop or throttling valve. Primary Function: To provide backup protection for steam turbines during turbine generator trips i n the event of main steam control valves do not close. The main steam stop valve s close from full open position to full close position in 0.15seconds to 0.5 sec

onds. Secondary Function: To provide steam throttling control during startup, the stop valves typically ha s internal bypass valves that allow throttling control of steam from initial tur bine roll to loads of 15% to 25%. During startup time main steam valves are wide open and the bypass valves are us ed to control steam flow. The valves are opened by hydraulic actuators with spri ng to assist closing of valve. Main steam control (governor) valves The steam flows from stop to the main steam valves or control valves. The primar y function of control valves is to regulate steam flow to turbine and this contr ol the power output of the steam turbine generator. The control valves also serv e as the primary shutoff of the steam to the turbine on unit normal shutdowns an d trips. These are also controlled by hydraulic actuators and springs. Main steam valves provides steam directed to the High Pressure Turbines. Reheat stop and intercept valves The steam exhausted from high pressure turbine flows through the cold reheat lin es to the reheater in the steam generator. The reheated steam then flows thoroug h the hot reheat piping of the reheat stop and intercepting valve. The function of this valve is similar to the main steam stop and control valve. The reheat st op valve offers backup protection for steam turbine in the event of unit trip an d failure of intercept valves to close. The need of this valve is because of high amount of energy in available in stea m present in the HP turbine, the hot and cold reheat lines and the reheater. On large load changes the main steam control valve start to close to control the sp eed. However the energy available in steam after main steam valves may be suffi cient for unit to cause over speed. Hence, to control the steam in IP and LP tur bine the reheat stop and intercept valves are placed. The are as close as IP tur bine as possible, to minimize steam available to expand during unit trips. Ventilator valves During unit trip, closure off main steam stop and control valves and the reheat stop and intercept valves traps steam in high pressure turbines. During the turb ine overspeed and subsequent coast down, the high pressure turbine blades are su bjected to windage losses, this causes blade to be heated. Heat in combination w ith overspeed can damage HP turbines. To prevent this ventilator valves are prov ided to bleed the trapped air to the condenser. 5) ASH MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Disposal and management of fly ash is a major problem in coal-fired thermal powe r plants. Fly ash emissions from a variety of coal combustion units show a wide range of composition. All elements below atomic number 92 are present in coal as h. A 500 MW thermal power plant releases 200 mt SO2, 70 t NO2 and 500 t fly ash approximately every day. Particulate matter (PM) considered as a source of air po llution constitutes fly ash. The fine particles of fly ash reach the pulmonary r egion of the lungs and remain there for long periods of time; they behave like c umulative poisons. The submicron particles enter deeper into the lungs and are d eposited on the alveolar walls where the metals could be transferred to the bloo d plasma across the cell membrane. The residual particles being silica (4073%) ca use silicosis. All the heavy metals (Ni, Cd, Sb, As, Cr, Pb, etc.) generally foun d in fly ash are toxic in nature. The ash in the DSPM TPS Korba(E) settled down in the boiler after full combustio n of coal, was taken to the large ash containers called hoppers. There are sever al set of hopper chains in DSPM KORBA(E) there were 7 hopper chains and out of w hich 5 were working and 2 were on standby. The number of hopper chains working a lso largely depends upon the plant load. Each hopper chain have 4 hoppers which

are connected to one another by automatic gates. The ash from the boiler enters the first hopper of the hopper chain and within the first hopper is completely f ul of ash its gets disconnected from the boiler. Then the gates of hopper 1 and hopper 2 opens and using the vacuum again the ash gets transferred from 1st to s econd hopper. In this way the chain continues till the ash reaches the last hopp er using the vacuum pumps. After reaching the last hopper, the ash passes throug h the ESP[3] ,i.e., electrostatic precipitator. These ESPS precipitate most of th e ash on their walls and allow only 3%-4% of the total ash to fly off as smoke f rom chimneys. The rest precipitated ash on the sheet is then settled down in lar ge humps by hammering the sheets. There are usually more than 20 hammers for eac h sheet of ESP. this settled ash is then mixed with the waste water and converte d into a semi solid paste. This paste is pumped to the nearest disposal location which is approximately 20kms away from the plant in this case. A couple of years a development was made in the DSPM TPS by reusing the water fr om the semisolid waste formed by mixing the ash and water. This is done by reusi ng the water that is disposed with the ash, the water is brought back to the pla nt from the disposal location by doing some preliminary purification there itsel f and the rest processing of water is done after reaching to the plant. This met hod turned out to be pretty successful in terms of waste water treatment and als o in economic term as it saves the plant approximately 20 lacs per month. 6) CONDENSOR The condenser condenses steam from the exhaust of the turbine into liquid allow it to be pumped. If the condenser can be made cooler, the pressure of the exhaus t steam is reduced and the efficiency if the cycle increases. The surface of condenser is a shell and tube heat exchanger in which cooling wat er is circulated through the tubes. The exhaust steam from the low pressure turb ine enters the shell where it is cooled and converted to condensate by flowing o ver the tubes. Such condensers use steam ejectors or rotary motor driven exhaust ers for continuous removal of air and gases from the steam side to maintain vacu um. For best efficiency, the temperature in the condenser must be kept as low as pra ctical in order to achieve the lowest possible pressure in the condensing steam. Since the condenser temperature can almost always be kept significantly below 1 00o C where the vapor pressure of water is much lss than atmospheric pressure, t he condenser generally works under vacuum. Thus leaks of non considerable air in to the closed loop must be prevented. Typically the cooling water causes the steam to condense at a temperature of abo ut 350C and that creates an absolute pressure in the condenser of about 2-7 KPa, i.e., a vacuum of about 95kPa relative to atmospheric pressure. The large decre ase in volume that occurs when water vapor condense to liquid creates the low va cuum that helps pull steam through and increase efficiency of the turbines. The limiting factor is the temperature of the cooling water that, in turn, is li mited by the prevailing average climatic conditions at the power plants location. Plants operating in the hot climates have to reduce output if their source of c ooling water becomes warmer. The condenser generally uses either circulating cooling water from a cooling tow er to reject waste to the atmosphere, or once through water from a river, lake o r ocean. The heat absorbed by the circulating cooling water in the condenser tubes must a lso be removed to maintain the ability of the water to cool as it circulates. Th is is done by pumping the warm water from the condenser through either natural d raft, forced draft or induced draft cooling towers expelling waste heat to the a tmosphere. The circulation flow rate of the cooling water in a 500 MW unit is ab out 14.2 m3/s at full load. The heat absorbed by the circulating cooling water in the condenser tubes must a lso be removed to maintain the ability of the water to cool as it circulates. Th is is done by pumping the warm water from the condenser through either natural d raft, forced draft or induced draft cooling towers at full load. The condenser tubes are made of brass or stainless steel to resist corrosion fro

m either side. Nevertheless they may become internally fouled during operation b y bacteria or algae in the cooling water or by mineral scaling, all of which inh ibit heat transfer and reduce thermodynamic efficiency. Many plants include an a utomatic cleaning system that circulates sponge rubber balls through the tubes t o scrub them clean without the need to take the system off-line.[citation needed ] The cooling water used to condense the steam in the condenser returns to its sou rce without having been changed other than having been warmed. If the water retu rns to a local water body (rather than a circulating cooling tower), it is tempe red with cool raw water to prevent thermal shock when discharged into that bod y of water. Another form of condensing system is the air-cooled condenser. The process is si milar to that of a radiator and fan. Exhaust heat from the low pressure section of a steam turbine runs through the condensing tubes, the tubes are usually finn ed and ambient air is pushed through the fins with the help of a large fan. The steam condenses to water to be reused in the water-steam cycle. Air-cooled conde nsers typically operate at a higher temperature than water-cooled versions. Whil e saving water, the efficiency of the cycle is reduced (resulting in more carbon dioxide per megawatt of electricity). From the bottom of the condenser, powerful condensate pumps recycle the condense d steam (water) back to the water/steam cycle. The condenser tubes are made of brass or stainless steel to resist corrosion fro m either side. Nevertheless they may become internally fouled during operation b y bacteria or algae in the cooling water or by mineral scaling, all of which inh ibit heat transfer and reduce thermodynamic efficiency. Many plants include an a utomatic cleaning system that circulates sponge rubber balls through the tubes t o scrub them clean without the need to take the system off-line.[citation needed ] The cooling water used to condense the steam in the condenser returns to its sou rce without having been changed other than having been warmed. If the water retu rns to a local water body (rather than a circulating cooling tower), it is tempe red with cool raw water to prevent thermal shock when discharged into that bod y of water. Another form of condensing system is the air-cooled condenser. The process is si milar to that of a radiator and fan. Exhaust heat from the low pressure section of a steam turbine runs through the condensing tubes, the tubes are usually finn ed and ambient air is pushed through the fins with the help of a large fan. The steam condenses to water to be reused in the water-steam cycle. Air-cooled conde nsers typically operate at a higher temperature than water-cooled versions. Whil e saving water, the efficiency of the cycle is reduced (resulting in more carbon dioxide per megawatt of electricity). From the bottom of the condenser, powerful condensate pumps recycle the condense d steam (water) back to the water/steam cycle. APPENDIX RANKINE CYCLE: The Rankine cycle is a cycle that converts heat into work. The he at is supplied externally to a closed loop, which usually uses water. This cycle generates about 90% of all electric power used throughout the world COAL CONVEYOR: Coal conveyors are used to move coal around efficiently. Coal arr iving by train can be stocked for later use or taken straight to the coal bunker s. An automatic control system helps to ensure that the conveyors take the coal to the right bunkers. COAL FEEDERS: The variable speed coal feeder feeds coal from the bunkers to the mill via a 450 millimetre diameter pipe. It uses a conveyor to move coal through a fixed gap at a precisely controlled speed. Varying the speed controls the amo unt of coal supplied to the boilers PRIMARY AIR FAN: Air to blow the coal from the mill to the boiler, called the pr imary air, is supplied by a large fan driven by a 3,300 volts variable speed mot or.

FORCED DRAUGHT FAN: Each unit has two forced draught fans. The fans draw warm ai r from the top of the boiler house through large air heaters becoming the primar y and secondary air used for the boiler combustion process. The air heater warms the incoming air by transferring heat energy from the outgoing flue gases. AIR PRE HEATER: The air heaters use the remaining heat energy in the flue gas to heat up the combustion air for the boiler. Efficiency is increased by using thi s heat that would otherwise go up the chimney. The air temperature leaving the a ir heaters is at 294C. ELECTRO STATIC PRECIPITATORS(ESP): Each boiler has three precipitators which con tain high voltage electrodes, these attract the dust or pulverised fuel ash (PFA ) from the flue gases. At regular intervals the electrodes are rapped with motor -driven hammers and the PFA falls into hoppers below. In a year we would expect to produce 1.4 million tonnes of PFA. Induced Draught Fans: Two induced draught fans draw gases out of the boiler. The gas has already passed through the air heaters and precipitators before it has reached these fans. SUPERHEATER: The steam produced in the boiler goes to the steam drum and is then piped through the primary, platen and final superheaters where it reaches the o utlet temperature of 568C and 166 bar pressure. BOILER REHEATER: After expanding through the high pressure turbine the exhaust s team is returned to the boiler at 360C and 42 bar pressure for reheating before b eing used in the intermediate pressure turbine. ECONOMIZER: Flue gases leaving the superheater and reheater still contain useful energy. Water from the high pressure feed heaters is heated in the economiser f rom 252C to 292C before it continues to the steam drum. Having given up its last h eat in the boiler, the flue gases move on to the air heater. STEAM DRUM: After leaving the economiser, the feedwater reaches the steam drum, which is a cylindrical vessel at the top of the boiler. From here the water flow s by natural circulation through downpipes into the boiler. Saturated steam coll ects here ready to go to the superheater. CIRCULATING WATER PUMPS: The circulating water pumps are used to circulate the w ater from the cooling tower to the condenser and back again. CIRCULATING WATER MAKE UP PUMPS: These pumps are used to supply water from the R iver Ouse. Before going to the cooling tower the silt is removed in large sedime ntation tanks.

Bibliography www.cseb.gov.in www.draxgroup.plc.uk www.wikipedia.com http://thermalpowerplant.wordpress.com/boiler/ http://suite101.com/article/operation-of-a-thermal-power-plant-a18692 http://ksk.co.in/opr-evl-tp.html

http://www.tva.gov/power/coalart.htm http://www.powerplant.vissim.com/