Contents

Preface to the second edition xiii

Acknowledgements xv
Diagrammatic symbols xvii
Abbreviations and terms used in this book xviii

1 The basics of steam generation and use 1

David Lindsley
1.1 Why an understanding of steam is needed 1
1.2 Boiling: the change of state from water to steam 1
1.3 The nature of steam 3
1.3.1 The Carnot cycle 4
1.3.2 The Rankine cycle 6
1.4 Thermal efficiency 8
1.5 The gas turbine and combined-cycle plants 8
1.6 Summary 10
Reference 10

2 The steam and water circuits 11

David Lindsley and Don Parker
2.1 Steam generation and use 11
2.2 Drum boilers and HRSGs 11
2.3 Once-through boilers and OTSGs 13
2.4 The steam turbine 15
2.5 The condensate and feedwater system 19
2.5.1 The deaerator 19
2.6 The feed pumps and valves 21
2.7 The water and steam circuits of HRSG plant 21
2.8 Summary 23

3 The fuel, air and flue–gas circuits 25

David Lindsley and John Grist
3.1 The furnace 25
3.1.1 Firing arrangements and burners 26
3.1.2 Wall-fired boilers and wall burners 26
3.1.3 Corner-fired boilers and tilting burners 27
vi Thermal power plant control and instrumentation

3.1.4 Downshot (also down-fired or W-fired) boilers

and their burners 28
3.1.5 OFA and boosted OFA 30
3.2 The air and gas circuits 31
3.2.1 The air heater 31
3.2.2 Types of fan 33
3.2.3 Final elements for draught control 37
3.3 Fuel systems 39
3.3.1 Coal firing (PF) 39
3.3.2 Waste-to-energy plants 51
3.4 Igniter systems 56
3.5 Burner management systems 56
3.5.1 Furnace purge and fuel oil leak tests 58
3.5.2 Starting the oil burners 59
3.5.3 Starting and stopping a mill 60
3.5.4 Fuel oil trip 61
3.5.5 Master fuel trip 61
3.5.6 Boiler trip 61
3.5.7 Special considerations for external plant 62
3.5.8 Special considerations for downshot or W-fired boilers 62
3.6 Ancillary systems 62
3.7 Gas turbines in combined-cycle applications 65
3.8 Summary 65
Reference 65

4 Setting the demand for the steam generator 67

David Lindsley and Don Parker
4.1 Nature of the demand 67
4.2 Setting the demand in power station applications 68
4.2.1 Operation of the UK electricity trading system 69
4.2.2 Frequency response services 70
4.3 The master demand in a power station application 71
4.3.1 Boiler-following operation 71
4.3.2 Turbine-following operation 72
4.3.3 Coordinated unit control 73
4.3.4 Relative performance 74
4.4 Load demand in CHP plants 76
4.5 WTE plants 77
4.6 Heat recovery steam generators 78
4.7 Summary 79

5 Combustion and draught control 81

David Lindsley and John Grist
Part 1: Control 81
 Contents vii

5.1 The principles of combustion control 81

5.1.1 Cross-limited control 83
5.1.2 Multiple fuel sources 90
5.2 Working with multiple fuels 90
5.3 The control of mills or pulverisers 93
5.3.1 The ‘load line’ 93
5.3.2 Mill control strategies 94
5.3.3 Fuel quality factor 95
5.3.4 Mill temperature control 96
5.3.5 Controlling multiple mills and multiple fuels 99
5.4 Air distribution and pressure control 102
5.5 NOx control 103
5.6 Maintaining the furnace draught 106
5.7 Cross-over pressure control 108
5.8 Binary control of the combustion system 110
5.8.1 Burner management systems (BMS) and plant safety 110
5.8.2 Sequence controls 110
Part 2: Instrumentation 111
5.9 Furnace instrumentation 111
5.9.1 CCTV systems 111
5.9.2 Acoustic leak detection 112
5.9.3 Flame monitoring and purge air requirements 114
5.9.4 The requirements for purge air 118
5.10 Oil (and gas) flow instrumentation 119
5.11 Air flow 120
5.11.1 Venturi 120
5.11.2 Aerofoil 120
5.11.3 Thermal mass flow 121
5.11.4 Capacitance/cross-correlation 123
5.11.5 Averaging Pitot tube system 125
5.12 Flue gas analysis 128
5.12.1 Oxygen and CO analysers 128
5.12.2 NOx measurements 129
5.12.3 Continuous emission monitoring systems 130
5.13 Mill and silo fire detection and penthouse monitoring 131
5.14 CIA measurements 133
5.15 Summary 134
References 134

6 Feedwater control and instrumentation 135

David Lindsley and John Grist
Part 1: controls 135
6.1 Drum level and feedwater control 135
6.2 One, two, three and four-element control 135
viii Thermal power plant control and instrumentation

6.2.1 Two-element feedwater control 137

6.2.2 Three-element feedwater control 139
6.2.3 Four-element level control 141
6.3 Feedwater valve control 144
6.4 Storage vessel-level control in a once-through boiler 145
6.5 Once-through super critical additional systems 150
6.5.1 Sub-cooling line 150
6.5.2 Economiser vent line 152
6.6 Basic enthalpy control 152
6.6.1 Enthalpy control process considerations 152
6.6.2 Enthalpy control logic considerations 154
6.7 Deaerator control 154
6.7.1 Steam pressure control 154
6.7.2 Level control 155
6.7.3 Integrated-level control 156
Part 2: feedwater instrumentation and control mechanisms 157
6.8 Measuring and displaying the drum level, steam and feed flows 157
6.8.1 Some words of caution 158
6.8.2 Using an external water column 159
6.8.3 Statutory requirements 161
6.8.4 Discrepancies between drum-level indications 161
6.8.5 Drum-level gauges 162
6.9 Feed-flow measurement 164
6.10 Steam flow measurement 164
6.11 The mechanisms used for feedwater control 165
6.11.1 Valves 165
6.11.2 Quick opening 166
6.11.3 Linear 166
6.11.4 Equal percentage 167
6.11.5 The valve sizing coefficient 168
6.11.6 Fail-safe operation 168
6.11.7 Selecting the valve size 168
6.11.8 Specialised valve trims 169
6.12 Pumps 171
6.12.1 Variable-speed pumps 171
6.12.2 Pump controls 173
6.12.3 Boiler circulation pumps 173
6.13 Summary 175

7 Steam temperature control and measurement 177

David Lindsley and John Grist
7.1 Why steam temperature control is needed 177
7.2 The spray water attemperator 178
7.2.1 The mechanically atomised attemperator 179
 Contents ix

7.2.2 The variable area attemperator 180

7.2.3 The variable annulus desuperheater 180
7.2.4 Other types of attemperator 181
7.2.5 Radial discharge mechanically atomised attemperators 181
7.2.6 Location of temperature sensors 183
7.2.7 Control systems for spray water attemperators 183
7.3 Advanced steam temperature control 188
7.3.1 Two-loop control 189
7.3.2 State controller with observer 191
7.4 Controlling the temperature of reheated steam 193
7.4.1 Reheat sprays 193
7.4.2 Gas pass biasing dampers 193
7.4.3 Temperature control with tilting burners 195
7.4.4 Flue gas recycling 195
7.4.5 Hot air injection 197
7.5 Temperature measurement 197
7.5.1 Measurement of air and flue gas temperature 197
7.5.2 Measurement of steam temperature 198
7.5.3 Measurement of metal temperature 198
7.6 Summary 201

8 Control equipment practice 203

David Lindsley and John Grist
8.1 A typical DCS configuration 203
8.1.1 The central system cabinets 203
8.1.2 Termination and marshalling 207
8.1.3 Operator workstations 208
8.2 Interconnections between the systems 211
8.3 Equipment selection and environment 211
8.4 Mechanical factors and ergonomics 212
8.4.1 Site considerations 212
8.5 Electric actuators 220
8.6 Hydraulic actuators 221
8.7 Cabling 224
8.7.1 Summary 224
8.7.2 Fire-resistant, fire-retardant and low-smoke cables 224
8.8 Electromagnetic compatibility 226
8.8.1 Earth connections 226
8.8.2 Cables: armouring screening and glands 228
8.9 Database tools 230
8.10 Reliability of systems 234
8.10.1 Analysing the effects of failure 236
8.11 Summary 238
References 238
x Thermal power plant control and instrumentation

9 Requirements definition and equipment nomenclature 239

David Lindsley and Don Parker
9.1 Overview 239
9.2 Defining the requirements 239
9.2.1 The Project Plan 240
9.2.2 System descriptions 240
9.2.3 The Functional Design Specification 240
9.2.4 The Technical Specification 241
9.2.5 Design of functional safety systems and related
boiler control logic 243
9.2.6 Testing requirements 243
9.2.7 Making provision for site tests 244
9.2.8 Vendor documentation systems 245
9.3 The KKS equipment identification system 246
9.3.1 The importance of agreement and coordination 247
9.3.2 Review of KKS 248
9.3.3 An example of how the codes are used 252
9.4 Summary 253
References 253

10 Functional safety and associated reviews for boiler

protection and control systems 255
John Grist
10.1 Introduction 255
10.2 Background 256
10.3 Basis of design: basis of safety 256
10.4 Process HAZID study 257
10.5 P&ID review meeting 257
10.6 Hazardous area classification 258
10.7 HAZOP 259
10.8 Determination of safety integrity level (SIL) 260
10.9 Project liaison meetings 262
10.10 Demonstration of SIL achieved 263
10.11 Implosion studies 263
10.12 Factory acceptance tests 265
10.12.1 Hardware testing 265
10.12.2 Software testing 265
10.12.3 Graphics 269
10.13 Audits 270
10.14 Final checks 270
10.15 Non-C&I-related safety reviews 270
10.16 Operations and maintenance personnel training 270
10.17 Ongoing site activities and reviews 271
 Contents xi

11 Improving plant automation and operational flexibility 273

Don Parker
11.1 Features of highly automated power plant 273
11.2 Features of operationally flexible plant 274
11.3 Benefits of highly automated plant 274
11.4 Design principles for high-level automation 275
11.4.1 Hierarchical sequence design 275
11.4.2 Extensive plant self-protection and situation
recovery control actions 277
11.4.3 Improving modulating controls design 277
11.5 Boiler–turbine coordination: control design
for operational flexibility 280
11.5.1 Understanding boiler and turbine steam
dynamic responses 280
11.5.2 Coordinated modes for MW control 283
11.5.3 Coordinated Turbine Following 283
11.5.4 Unit Coordinated (also referred to as C-BF) mode 283
11.5.5 Components of the Unit Coordinated controls 284
11.5.6 Frequency response 288
11.5.7 Capability limits and runbacks 289
11.6 Summary 290
References 290

12 Upgrading and refurbishing systems 293

David Lindsley and Don Parker
12.1 Drivers for change 293
12.2 The DCS upgrade cycle 294
12.3 The impact of change 296
12.3.1 Operators 296
12.3.2 Maintenance 298
12.3.3 Cyber security 299
12.3.4 Corporate expectations 299
12.4 Refurbishment case studies 300
12.4.1 Multi-phase to DCS 300
12.4.2 DCS HMI upgrade 302
12.4.3 Complete DCS replacement 303
12.4.4 ‘Transparent’ control system migration 304
12.5 Preparing for change 304
12.5.1 Making the business case 304
12.5.2 Technical preparations 305
12.6 Implementing the project 308
12.7 Keeping track of system reliability and costs 309
xii Thermal power plant control and instrumentation

12.8 Change management 310

12.9 Summary 311
12.10 Conclusion 311
References 311

Index 313