THE UNIVERSITY

of BIRMINGHAM

Study of Supercritical Coal Fired

Power Plant Dynamic Responses and Control
for Grid Code Compliance
Prof Jihong Wang, Dr Jacek D Wojcik (University of Warwick)
Dr Yali Xue (Tsinghua University)

Mathematical Modelling and Simulation of Power Plants and CO2 Capture

WORKSHOP
University of Warwick, 20th-21st March 2012
Outline

• Overview of the EPSRC Project (J Wang)

• Power Plant Modelling (J Wojcik)
• Power Plant Simulation (Y L Xue)
• Summary (J Wang)

THE UNIVERSITY
of BIRMINGHAM
Outline

• Overview of the EPSRC Project

• Power Plant Simulator
• Power plant modelling
• Summary

THE UNIVERSITY
of BIRMINGHAM
Supercritical technology

Subcritical Supercritical Ultra supercritical

(conventional)

Temperature 500 – 550 500 – 600 550 – 600, (600 – 700)*

(°C)
Pressure (MPa) 16 – 17 24 – 26 27 – 32, (40 – 42)*

Features Drum: single Once through: Once through: double

reheat single reheat reheat

Efficiency 33 - 35 40-45 42 – 47, (50 –

cycle (%) 55)*

THE UNIVERSITY
of BIRMINGHAM
Future new power plants in the UK - SUPERCRITICAL

Power generation responses

to the demand changes
Fast enough to satisfy the grid
specification

THE UNIVERSITY
of BIRMINGHAM
 Subcritical Supercritical

Subcritical water-steam cycle Supercritical water-steam cycle (no

Drum – energy storage phase change)
Once-through operation – no energy
Challenges: storage

Can supercritical power generation responses to the demand

changes fast enough to satisfy BG Grid Code requirement?
THE UNIVERSITY
of BIRMINGHAM
Project Objectives

Through study supercritical coal fired power plant

mathematical modelling and simulation:

• to understand the dynamic responses of

supercritical power plants
• to investigate the possible strategies for
improvement

THE UNIVERSITY
of BIRMINGHAM
List of UK power stations - All Subcritical (~33% efficiency)
Station Name Representation Company Address Capacity
in MW
Aberthaw B National Ash RWE Npower The Leys Aberthaw, Barry South CF62 42W 1,489
Glamorgan
Cockenzie ScotAsh Scottish Power Prestopans East Lothian 1,152
Cottam EDF Energy EDF Energy Cottam Power Nottinghamshire DN22 0ET 1,970
Company, PO Box 4, nr
Retford
Didcot A National Ash RWE Npower Didcot Nr Oxford OX11 7HA 2,020
Drax Hargreaves CCP Drax Power Limited Drax Selby North Yorks YO8 8PQ 3,870
Eggborough British Energy British Energy Eggborough Goole North DN14 0BS 1,960
Humberside
Ferrybridge C Keadby generation Scottish & Southern PO Box 39, Stranglands Knottingley West WF11 8SQ 1,955
Ltd Energy plc Lane Yorkshire
Fiddlers Ferry Keadby generation Scottish & Southern Widnes Road Cuerdley Warrington WA5 2UT 1,961
Ltd Energy plc
Ironbridge EON UK PowerGen Buildwas Road Telford Shropshire TF8 7BL 970
Kingsnorth EON UK PowerGen Hoo Saint Werburgh Rochester Kent ME3 9NQ 1,974
Longannet ScotAsh Scottish Power ScotAsh Ltd, Kincardine- Fife FK10 4AA 2,304
on-Forth
Lynemouth Alcan Alcan Primary Metal - Ashington Northumberland NE63 9YH 420
Europe
Ratcliffe EON UK Powergen Ratcliife on Soar Nottingham NG11 0EE 2,000
Rugeley International Power International Power Rugeley Power Station Armitage Road Rugeley WS15 1PR 976
Tilbury B National Ash RWE Npower Fort Road Tilbury Essex RM18 8UJ 1,020
West Burton EDF Energy EDF Energy West Burton Power Nottinghamshire DN22 9BL 1,932
Company, Retford
Wilton Hargreaves CCP ICI PO Box 1985, Wilton Middlesborough TS90 8WS 100
International

THE UNIVERSITY
of BIRMINGHAM
 Collaboration
Mathematical
modelling, simulation Industrial scale power
study, dynamic
Consortium
interactions plant modelling and
response analysis,
optimal control, simulation,
Exchange of software
Grid Code studies materials, data,
information development,
Shared models,
verification
software and
simulations

Supercritical water, Integrated testing

test rig evelopment, programme Power plant control,
Experimental tudies, intelligent
data collection and algorithms,
analysis
Team

University of Warwick:
Prof J Wang, Dr J Wojcik
Mr M Draganescu, Mr S Guo
University of Birmingham:
Dr B Al-Duri, Mr O Mohamed
Tsinghua University
Prof. J F Lv, Prof Q R Gao, Dr Y L Xue
North China Electric Power University
Prof X J Liu, Prof G L Hou

THE UNIVERSITY
of BIRMINGHAM
 Frequency in the Power System - Mr M Draganescu
Definition:
Power System Frequency can be defined as a measure of the electrical
speed of the synchronous generators connected to the grid; this is a
common value at every point in the grid.

Frequency – constant value

Electricity Electricity
Generation Demand at all time.
PGen PDem

Electricity Electricity Power System

Generation Demand Instability
Frequency Total Outage
Deviations (Blackout)
THE UNIVERSITY
of BIRMINGHAM
 UK Power System

Electricity Supplied by Fuel Type in 2010:

Transmission System Operators (TSOs):
• National Grid
• Scottish and Southern Energy
• Scottish Power

System Data:
Circuit Voltage Circuit Length
TSO
[kV] [km]
National Grid 400, 275 ~14,000
Scottish and
275, 132 ~5,000
Southern Energy
Scottish Power 400, 275, 132 ~4,000

THE UNIVERSITY
of BIRMINGHAM
 UK Power System — The Grid Code —
Nominal Frequency: 50 Hz
Frequency Variation Interval [Hz]
Normal
Critical Situations
Operation
49.5 – 50.5 47.0 – 52.0

Frequency Control Strategies

Type of Frequency Control
Response Time
Strategy
active power increase within 10 s and
Primary Frequency Response
maintained for another 30 s
active power increase within 30 s and
Secondary Frequency Response
maintained for another 30 min
active power decrease within 10 s and
High Frequency Response
maintained thereafter

THE UNIVERSITY
of BIRMINGHAM
 UK Power System — The Grid Code —
Frequency Response Capability of a Generating Unit
Test:
A frequency ramp decrease/
increase of 0.5 Hz over a period of 10 s.

THE UNIVERSITY
of BIRMINGHAM
Outline

• Overview of the EPSRC Project (J Wang)

• Power Plant Modelling (J Wojcik)
• Power Plant Simulation (Y L Xue)
• Summary (J Wang)

THE UNIVERSITY
of BIRMINGHAM
 Power Plant Modelling
Mathematical modelling of Supercritical Power Plant in Matlab®/Simulink® software environment

Exact mathematical model of SCPP consists of:

• Coal mill (Pulverised-Fuel)
• Supercritical Boiler
• Steam Turbine
• Synchronous Generator (SG) and Electric Power System (EPS)
• Excitation System – Auto Voltage Regulator (AVR) and Exciter
• Governor (GOV)
• Boiler Control System

Δω Single-Machine
Control
Governor Infinitive Bus
System
CVArea IVArea
WC PMSP Pe Pe
δ Pg
WFWF Electrical
ΔPpa COAL SC WSC Steam PM Synchronous Eqb Qg
Edb Power
Tin MILL WPF BOILER PRH Turbine Generator Ug
Ig System

B+jG

EFD Ig
Excitation
System Ug

Mathematical model of Supercritical Power Plant - Block diagram.

 Power Plant Modelling
Coal Mill Model Implementation in Matlab®/Simulink® software environment

Two different types of pulverised coal mill in power plants

Vertical Spindle Tube-Ball mill ΔPout , ΔPin , Tin , Tout

mill Ap1 Ap2 Wc M

c 1 Mc P
Differential equations
Kf  s K1,K2,
K3,K4,
Mc_initial K15 K5,K6,
K7,K8,
ΔPout, Mpf_initial M pf K14,
W pf Mpf T
1 K17
K16 
s

Block diagram of coal mill model.

‘On-line Condition and Safety Monitoring of Pulverised Coal Mills

Using a Model Based Pattern Recognition Technique’
Prof Jihong Wang, Dr Jianlin Wei, Mr Paschalis Zachariades, Mr. Shen Guo

Model based on mass balance and heat balance:

Graphical
Unit
Interface
 Power Plant Modelling
SC Boiler Model Implementation in Matlab®/Simulink® software environment

The steam patch is divided into following parts:

• Economiser node
• Waterwall node
HP IP+LP • Superheater node
• Main steam line node
• Reheater node

condenser
to
Feedwater flow
Hi1

Fuel Fuel
flow 1
KECO
1 Differential equations
1+TFFs TECOs
Air Econo- Feedwater 

TECO  PECO  H i1  WFWF  H o1  WECO  K ECO  QB

Ho1

miser AECO√

Hi2

TWW  PWW  H i 2  WECO  H o2  WWW  KWW  QB
Flue gases KWW
1
TWWs
TSH  PSH  H i 3  WWW  H o3  WSH  K SH  QB


Water-Steam loop in basic once-through boiler design. Ho2 TCV  PCV  H i 4  WSH  H o4  WCV
AWW√

Hi3

TRH  PRH  H i 5  WCV  H o5  WRH  K RH  QB

Model based on mass balance and energy balance KSH


1
TSHs
TFF  Q B  WPF  QB
Ho3

ASH√


V Q Ki
Hi4

1
hi wi ho wo 
TCVs X
WCV

p v wi Hi 1 P Ho4
CVArea

h τ Ts
Hi5

1
KRH
wo Ho  TRHs X
WRH
q Ho5
IVArea
Steam pressure model
Where: Hi, Ho – input/output gain of steam flow entering/leaving associated nodes, P – node pressure,
Q – heat transfer to node, Wi – flow rate of fluid entering node, Wo – flow rate of fluid leaving node
Block diagram of boiler model.
 Power Plant Modelling
Steam Turbine and Governor Models Implementation in Matlab®/Simulink® software environment

Tandem-Compound Single-Reheat DEH control system

Steam Turbine Control mode
Switch
S1 S2 S3 S4
   feed forward loop
Pm1 SC on off off off
SCLF on off on off 1
K1 K3 K5 K7 0
SCPF on off off on
SCLFF off on on off 1 2
PMS π
1 1 1 1 SCPFF off on off on
π
1+sT4 1+sT5 1+sT6 1+sT7

GVArea IVArea K8 ∆n VD
K2 K4 K6 ∆f 1
1+sT1
K   PID 

  
-
Pref
Generic Model of Steam Turbine/ feedback loop Pload 3
Tandem-Compound Single-Reheat Steam Turbine Pms 4

Differential equations
T4W SC  ( PB  GVArea )  WSC DEH control system – block diagram,
where: ∆f – frequency deviation; ∆n – speed deviation; K– speed drop ;
T5 PRH  WSC  PRH
Pref – reference load signal; Pload – load signal;
T6WCR  WRH  WCR Pms – main steam pressure.

F. de Mello: Dynamic Models for Fossil Fuelled Steam Units in Power System Studies. IEEE Transactions on Power
Systems, Vol.6, No.2, 1991.
HP Steam
Chest
 Power Plant Modelling
Synchronous Generator Model Implementation in Matlab®/Simulink® software environment

Differential equations
B
   s 
Generator equivalent circuits
d

Tm   Pm  Pe  D (Xq – X’q) (X’q – X”q) X”q Iq (Xd – X’d) (X’d – X"d) X”d Id
f
 = t
 
Td''0 E q''  Eq'  Eq''  I d ( X d'  X d'' )
Q

Tq''0 E d''  E  E  I ( X  X ) E’d E”d Ud E’q E”q

A '
d
''
d q
'
q
''
q
Uq
Efd
D Td' 0 E q'  E  E  I ( X  X )
fd
'
q d d
'
d
Rotor q- axis Rotor d-axis
q
T E
'
q0
'
d  0  E  I ( X  X )
'
d q q
'
q
C

Electric Power System (EPS)

Synchronous generator connected to a large power system

(Single-Machine Infinite-Bus):
a) diagram of connection, b) equivalent electrical circuit (π).
 Power Plant Modelling
Excitation System Model Implementation in Matlab®/Simulink® software environment

VREF
Differential equations
VPF K PR
x1  K IR  uh
K IR KA Efd
VC─
   
1
K 
s 1  sTA
sTE TDR x 2   DR u h  x 2
─  TDR 

DC4B
─ sK DR

1  sTDR

KE
 K  
TA x3  K AVT  K PR  DR uh  x1  x2 
 
S E E fd
 TDR  
sK F

1  sTF
TF x 4 
KF
x3  V X  K E E fd   x4
TE
DC4B excitation system
TE E fd  x3  V X  K E E fd
VREF
VPF
K PR

uh Efd Differential equations

VC ─

K IR

KA
1  sTA
 1  x1  K IR  uh
s

sK DR
─
sTE
FEX  f I N 
K
TDR x 2   DR

u h  x 2 Evaluation of the exciter
S E VE   TDR  saturation curve SE(Efd).
AC8B
1  sTDR

I FD  K  
 KE I N  KC
VE TA x 3  K A  K PR  DR u h  x1  x2   x3
 TDR   a.)
KD
b.)
IFD TE x 4  x3  VX  K E x4  K D I FD FEX
AC8B excitation system 1 VE Efd


KG I
VREF I FD
VPF KC FEX  f I N 
─ Differential equations II IFD VE
K 1 K
 K PR  IR  IM Efd x1  K IR  uh
VC ─ s 1  sTA  K PM
s

III
ST4B

TA x 2  K PR  uh  x1  x2 0
VT 1 IN
VE  K PVT  j ( K I  K P X L ) I T   K K K  K G K IM
IT x3   K IM  G PM IM  x2  x3
 1  K G K PM  1  K G K PM Three-phase bridge rectifier: a.) voltage-
IFD IN
I
 K C FD
VE
FEX  f I N  current characteristic, b.) block diagram.
ST4B excitation system
IEEE Standard 421.5-2005: IEEE Recommended Practice for Excitation System Models for Power Stability Studies
 Power Plant Modelling
Model Parameters identification process in Matlab®/Simulink®

Model = structure + parameters

Integrating the intelligent optimisation algorithms with the power plant
model for parameters identification
Plant measurement
DATA from
SC Power Plant

Data input to model

Simulated and
MATLAB® Parameters SIMULINK®
measured
Genetic update Simulation Stopping YES
outputs Model
Algorithm for new criterion
parameters
Parameters
[Toolbox] met
(+measurement ?
input DATA)
NO
 Power Plant Modelling
Parameters identification process based on measurement data from SCPP

Steady-State Data Start-Up Data

GA Fitness Function:
Based on measured data form SCPP
1. Mechanical Power output Pm
2. Main steam pressure MSP
3. Reheater pressure RHP

Error calculation based on Integral of

Time Absolute Error (ITAE) criteria:

Input Data: Output Data:

Pm – mechanical power
FWF – feedwater flow MODEL MSP – main steam pressure
FF – fuel flow
RHP – reheater pressure
 Power Plant Modelling
Model Parameters Verification – Results for the best parameters set
0.9
0.8
PM [pu]

0.7 Pm – mechanical
000 power
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000
t [s]
1
0.9
MSP [pu]

0.8
0.7
MSP – main00
steam pressure
0.6
0.5
0.4
2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000
t [s]
0.8
RHP [pu]

0.7
00 pressure
RHP – reheater
0.6
0.5
0.4
data from industry
0.3
2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000 Simulink model
t [s]
Outline

• Overview of the EPSRC Project (J Wang)

• Power Plant Modelling (J Wojcik)
• Power Plant Simulation (Y L Xue)
• Summary (J Wang)

THE UNIVERSITY
of BIRMINGHAM
Content

 Tsinghua University
 Development of 600MW supercritical pulverized coal
power plant simulation software
 Summary
Tsinghua University is ranked the top university in China
Seasons in Tsinghua University, located in Beijing
 Tsinghua University has 56 academic departments

Institute of Thermal
Engineering
Thermal Engineering
Institute of Power
Mechanics & Engineering
Department

Institute of Fluid Mechanics

& Engineering

Institute of Engineering
Thermophysics

Institute of Simulation &

Control of Power System

Division of Thermal Power System

State Key Laboratory of Control & Simulation of Large Power
System & Generation Equipment
Research and Teaching in Power Plant Modeling and
Simulation at Tsinghua University
• The research in this area has over 30 years history
• Giving great contributions to China power industry
development
• Playing a major role in training key skilled personnel required
in China
• Leading in the research areas of power plant modeling and
simulation, clean coal technology and CCS
• State-of-the-art research facilities
Teaching facilities

Operator skills contest

135MW CFB Power Plant Simulator
State Key Task 10.5 National Development Plan
in China

Energy and Power Engineering Simulation

Practice
Compulsory Subjects for 3rd year
undergraduates
Development of large scale power plant simulation
software

• Principle

• Theoretical basis
– System Theory, Control Engineering, Computer Science
– Thermodynamics, Fluid dynamics, Combustion
– Mass/Energy/Momentum conservation equation, heat transfer equation, state
equations
 Example - comparison results of a CFB simulator
- Bed temperature, coal and oil flow rate in startup process

Bed Temp.

Feed Coal

Feed Oil

Field data Simulation results

600MW SCPC Simulation Scope

Objective
– Understand the dynamic load response character of SCPC
– Improve its control quality
Simulation Scope
The complete process of SCPC power plants from fuel preparation to electricity output
– Main devices
• Boiler, Turbine, Generator,
• Auxiliary Power, and related auxiliary machine
– Control Systems
• DAS/MCS/FSSS/BMS/SCS/ECS/DEH/ETS
– Malfunctions simulation
– Human Machine Interface
 600MW SCPC Simulation – Hardware Configuration

Large Screen
大屏幕投影
Display

指导教师工作站 仿真服务器 工程师工作站

Instructor Station Simulator Server Engineer Station

…… ……

就地操作站1 就地操作站2
Local Operator Station DCS操作站1
DCS Operator DCS操作站2
Station
600MW SCPC Simulation - Software Structure

Process
models

Model Control
develop system
support models
Simulation
Support
System
Database
Real-time
managem
running
ent

Network
communic
ation
600MW SCPC Simulation - Key Challenges

(1) Dynamic model of water fall

• Subcritical boiler riser tube – one-section lumped parameter model
• Supcritical boiler water fall – multi-section lumped parameter model
– At subcritical pressure, the water is heated gradually into steam-water
mixture (two phase flow)
– At supercritical pressure, the water is heated and evaporated into steam
directly (one phase flow)
– Near the critical point, the specific heat capacity shows dramatic change

Heat
Heat

Inlet Outlet
Inlet Outlet
1 2 N
600MW SCPC Simulation - Key Challenges

(2) Dynamic model of build-in startup separator

Subcritical Supcritical
Steam Water Separator Steam Chamber
Wet State Dry State
Boundary Node

(3) Build the steam/water thermodynamic property calculation method

600MW SCPC Simulation - Key Challenges

(4) Control system model

• Automatically stabilize the process
to improve the operator training
quality
• Basis for advanced study on
control system strategy and
controller parameter optimization
Multivariable nonlinear control
 Keep a proper coal water ratio - to track the unit load command quickly
while minimize the main steam temperature
 Feed forward signal from unit load command - to coordinate boiler/turbine
response
 Control intermediate point temperature or enthalpy - to keep stable heat
distribution in water wall
600MW SCPC Simulation - Feedwater Control

Feed water flow control in once-through supercritical coal-fired boiler is

different with that in drum-type boiler
– The fluctuation of feed water flow or combustion ratio all have great impact on the
dynamic of unit load and main steam temperature due to lack of drum
– To regulate unit load with minimum main steam temperature variation, the
combustion ratio (fuel and air flow) and feed water flow should keep a proper ratio—
coal/water ratio
Control scheme:
• Outer loop: feed water flow
command, consists of two parts:
a basic command comes from
coal-water ratio calculation,
then plus a calibration signal
from middle point temperature
control.
• Inner loop: feed water pump
speed control
600MW SCPC Simulation – Human Machine Interface
600MW SCPC Simulation – progress summary

• Completed
– Main devices modeling
– Substance property calculation
– Main Control system modeling
– Main steam-water system modeling
• To be developed
– HMI (DCS, DEH, MEH, etc) to facilitate the research on dynamic
response for grid code compliance
– Joint debugging and integration of the whole simulator
– Dynamic characteristic analysis and coordination control strategy
optimization
– Research on CCS+PC
Outline

• Overview of the EPSRC Project (J Wang)

• Power Plant Simulation (Y L Xue)
• Power Plant Modelling (J Wojcik)
• Summary (J Wang)

THE UNIVERSITY
of BIRMINGHAM
 Summary

• The grid code study and comparison are carried out

• The first version of Mathematical modelling for the whole
plant process was derived
• Simulation programme at the industrial scale is to complete
soon.
• Post combustion CCS process dynamic simulation study
started a few months ago (Shen Guo)
• Computational intelligent algorithms are used for optimisation

THE UNIVERSITY
of BIRMINGHAM
 Summary

Next stage work:

dynamic responses analysis and Grid Code compliance
control strategy for improvement of dynamic responses
in parallel with:
Post combustion CCS dynamic modelling
and simulation is on going
new/additional intelligent algorithms for power plant
optimisation

THE UNIVERSITY
of BIRMINGHAM
 Summary

Collaboration:
We would like to work with other academic
institutes together in the research area of
mathematical modelling and simulation of
large scale power plant with CCS process.

THE UNIVERSITY
of BIRMINGHAM
Thank You!

THE UNIVERSITY
of BIRMINGHAM