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Energy Audit of Subcritical Plant Performance With Different Types of Subbituminous Coal
Energy Audit of Subcritical Plant Performance With Different Types of Subbituminous Coal
Energy Audit of Subcritical Plant Performance With Different Types of Subbituminous Coal
RESEARCH ARTICLE
ENERGY AUDIT OF SUBCRITICAL PLANT PERFORMANCE WITH DIFFERENT TYPES
OF SUBBITUMINOUS COAL
Nuraini A.A.1*, Salmi S.2, Hairuddin A.A.1
1Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
2TNB Janamanjung Sdn. Bhd., Seri Manjung, Perak, Malaysia
*Corresponding Author Email: nuraini@upm.edu.my
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in
any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The energy used and energy waste are calculating accordingly and presented to the financial terms. Having said that,
Article History: the energy audit is the activities of measuring the energy is being consumed and it also tells how efficiently and
effectively the energy is being used. In addition, the energy audit critically identifies various weak at the field and
Received 14 June 2019 becomes as a tools to inform the system to make and corrective actions, mitigation plant and the meantime monitor
Accepted 20 July 2019 the performance. For this study, many parameters and calculation involved in an energy audit such as superheated
Available online 11 September 2019
steam temperature, superheated steam pressure, boiler drum level and other for the subcritical plant. For the
condenser vacuum and condenser pressure, result shows within acceptance range which is between 65 to 95 bar.
Besides that, the generator performance which indicate through generator active power and generator frequency,
Hertz for all type of coal shows similar result which is within acceptable range. As a results, coal types D behave
similar performance compare with designed coal type A. Overall, the energy audit gives very good assessment and
valuable information on the plant performance and consequently depicts the plant life cycle.
KEYWORDS
Cite The Article: Nuraini A.A., Salmi S., Hairuddin A.A. (2019). Energy Audit Of Subcritical Plant Performance With Different Types Of Subbituminous Coal .
Journal of Mechanical Engineering Research and Developments, 42(4) : 264-268.
Journal of Mechanical Engineering Research and Developments (JMERD) 42(4) (2019) 264-268
plant facility. This is because the activities on testing the boiler efficiency numerical plant performance data. The important parameters such as
indicate the combustion performance, optimum of operation, heat transfer main steam temperature, reheater steam temperature and the metal
process, effective maintenance activities, and the performance of boiler temperature were taken for analysis purposes. The spray water system is
over the time. For an example, there are two other causes which also lead used to control the temperature increase by reducing the temperature
to poor performance of boiler for example, the deterioration of fuel quality within the set limit; 540°C.
and water quality. Efficiency testing helps to observe, how far the boiler
deviates away from the best efficiency. During data collection, there are 6 unit stopwatches for recording the
exported power and 4 unit calibrated Resistance Temperature Detector
According to [8], the energy audit in analysing of boiler plant can be (RTD) for measuring condenser cooling water inlet temperature for each
measure through direct method and indirect method. The methods were steam turbine. The captured data was recorded in the log sheet and
referring to the standards for Boiler Testing at Site using indirect method presented in the checklist for energy audit assessment which comprise
namely British Standard, BS 845: 1987 and USA Standard is ‘ASME PTC-4- with 3 major areas such as boiler, turbine and condensate system and
1 Power Test Code Steam Generating Units as in [9]. The same researcher generator. The checklist was developed and applied during the energy
[8] mentioned that the method used energy balance sheet to compare the assessment audit for all types of coal. Checklist consists of boiler
efficiency and energy losses between the various components in Rankine parameters, turbine and condensate system parameters and generator
cycle such as heat exchanger, turbine, condenser, feed pump and overall parameters. In addition, the parameters checklist which consist of current
boiler. With regards to the energy analysis that can be conducted at power load setting, heat rate, milling parameters, cooling system is develop
generation plant, numerous energy assessments have been discussed during carrying out the activities.
among the researchers at various types of power plants. Most of the
researchers carried out the energy audit assessment to investigate the Table 2: Coal quality and characteristic
performance of the power plant, equipment availability and identification
Coal types A B C D
of energy losses sources such as in [10] and [11]. While [12] also adapting
energy audit in cement plant, other like [13] and [14] work on exergy Calorific value
4852 5013 5262 5410
analysis in solar-thermal power plant and lignite fired thermal power (kcal/kg)
plant respectively. %C 73.3 69.85 76.19 75.2
% H2 5.18 4.99 5.43 5.40
The parameter used for the energy audit and analysis is referred to the % N2 0.93 1.02 1.22 1.50
plant design before the commissioning period. Plant life cycle consist of % O2 20.43 20.33 16.17 17.21
equipment capability and reliability, financial model and condition base Ash 2.5 2.8 3.1 5.1
monitoring assessment as the factor should be considering before carry
Moisture 29.0 25.0 23.3 21.1
out the energy audit [15]. Most of the energy audit or namely as plant
energy assessment activities is decided by the authorities of the state and Sulphur 0.16 0.11 0.72 0.74
county such as in [16] where the study in tariff-based incentives given for HGI 47 54 45 44
improving coal-power-plant efficiencies in India. In Malaysia, the plant
assessment is carried out by referring to the requirement Energy 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Commission of Malaysia which is stated in Power Purchase Agreement
The units were maintained at full load condition throughout the test
(PPA) of the plant. For this study, a coal power plant in Manjung, Perak is
period. There were no interruptions or trips during the whole period of
used to carry out an energy audit in identifying the overall performance of
the test. As per requirement of the PPA the machine was run supplying its
the equipment in the power plant.
own auxiliaries and was isolated from all distribution board. During the
2. MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY exercise, the data was taken and recorded for every 12 hours and the test
was carried out for four different types of coal. As mentioned before, the
The purpose of energy audit in the thermal power plant is to measure the parameters and calculation involved in an energy audit was superheated
auxiliary power consumption. Auxiliary consumption for the thermal steam temperature, superheated steam pressure, boiler drum level, the
power plant consists of boiler efficiency, equipment and machine power total steam flow for full load, generator frequency, generator active power,
consumption, air compressor efficiency, evaporation losses, blow down feed water flow, turbine speed and condenser inlet temperature and
consumption, sufficient of heat transfer and other relevant parameters condenser outlet temperature.
mentioned in [17, 18]. In this study, the parameter data of the plant
equipment was captured, recorded, evaluated and measured. The test The superheated steam parameter distribution is presented during
parameters consist of active power, exported power, power factor, analysis of the boiler parameters effects, and the figure below presents the
machine speed, frequency of the machine, feed water flow, condenser inlet superheated steam temperature for 12 hours for 4 days. Figure 2 describes
and outlet temperature, cooling water pump header pressure, the mean superheated steam temperature distribution for four different
temperature of the superheated steam, pressure of the superheated steam, types of coal. From the figure, an increase in inlet superheated steam
drum level, and steam flow quantities. temperature, an increase in superheat at constant inlet steam pressure
and condenser pressure gives steady improvement in cycle efficiency and
The test was conducted on the plant equipment using different types of lowers the heat rate due to the increase of mean superheated temperature.
coal. The loading for the steam turbine units was at full load operation and Raising the inlet superheated steam temperature also reduces the wetness
was fired with coal type A, coal type B, coal type C, and coal type D. The of the steam in the later stages of the turbine and improves the turbine
coal specifications are different between coal types. As required by the internal efficiency. However, the increase in steam temperature is limited
Energy Procurement Department of the plant, the total duration of the test by the properties of the construction materials of the boiler and turbines.
is 4 days. For sets of one-hour interval, test readings were taken during
each of this period for the purpose of calculation. All the parameters used In ensuring there was no effect of variation steam condition on thermal
during the energy tests were recorded annually using log sheets and efficiency of superheated steam power plant, the output of power
readings taken at Central Control Room (CCR). Condenser inlet and outlet generation is set at 690 MW. Consequently, there was a need for
temperature was recorded automatically using data logger at third second measuring the superheated steam pressure. The increase in superheated
interval. All tests readings were taken for every five-minute. For the steam pressure is limited by considerations of mechanical stresses and the
Export Power, the calculation made measured the energy integrated ensuing higher cost of equipment. Figure 3 shows that the superheated
between one-hour periods. steam pressure for different types of coal is about 177 bar in average. The
water forms superheated steam pressure at steam pressure of 177 bar and
In this plant, the boiler was fitted with seven mills where the corner-fired a temperature of 540C° in general.
boilers have burners at seven levels, each level served by one mill. The
mills were identified as numbers 10, 20, 30, 40 50, 60 and 70, starting from
the mill serving the lowest level of burners. The corners were identified as
numbers 10, 20, 30 and 40. For full-load operation, it is normal to operate
with six mills for sub bituminous coals and with five mills for bituminous
coals. Table 2 shows the coal quality determined by the laboratory section
before it is supplied to the power station coal yard. Example of Certificate
of Analysis (COA) of coal used for this study was attached in Appendix in
[2].
During the study, the boiler fired with the same coal for 5 days Figure 2: Mean superheated steam temperature for different types of
continuously without any interruption. Data was collected using the coal
Cite The Article: Nuraini A.A., Salmi S., Hairuddin A.A. (2019). Energy Audit Of Subcritical Plant Performance With Different Types Of Subbituminous Coal .
Journal of Mechanical Engineering Research and Developments, 42(4) : 264-268.
Journal of Mechanical Engineering Research and Developments (JMERD) 42(4) (2019) 264-268
The measurement of drum level was to ensure safe boiler operation which Figure 5: Boiler drum level measurement for different types of coal
was critical to control the boiler operation. The drum level must be
controlled to the limits specified by the boiler manufacturer. If the drum
level does not stay within these limits, there may be water carryover. If the
level exceeds the limits, boiler water carryover into the superheated or the
turbine may cause damage resulting in extensive maintenance costs or
outages of either the turbine or the boiler. If the level is low, overheating
of the water wall tubes may cause tube ruptures and serious accidents,
resulting in expensive repairs, downtime, and injury or death to personnel.
From the figures, the superheated steam flow is 2000 to 2200 tonne per
hour. Significantly, the high CV coal shows the less total steam flow
produced at the boiler with the same load output, 700 MW. Coal types D
with GCV of fuel 5410 kcal/kg formed less steam flow compared to the
others type of fuel. Then the superheated steam flow indicates the normal
flow to perform full load capacity, 700 MW. Therefore, the overall steam
energy accuracy was determined by combining the uncertainty of the flow,
Figure 4: Feedwater flow for different types of coal temperature, and pressure sensors and calculation uncertainty.
Condenser pressure is an important parameter in a power plant especially
According to [19], the tubes connected to the boiler drum were normally for a thermal plant. The condenser pressure was directly linked to the
defective due to rupture and crack. Due to that, there was inconsistency of amount of work done by the turbine which affects the output and hence
boiler drum position and affects the drum level. Drum level low incident the efficiency of the overall cycle. By lowering the condenser pressure, the
will occur where the water level was below the tube entry in the drum. steam is condensed at a lower pressure thus resulting in more expansion
Boiler damage will happen accordingly. Figure 5 shows the boiler drum through the turbine which increases the net work done by the turbine.
level during the test for four different types of coal. The boiler drum level This can be visualized easily through the T-S diagram of the Rankine Cycle..
is between -228 to -231 mm level and there was not significant effect The condenser pressure was directly linked to the amount of work done
during the test period. The fluctuation of drum level is corresponding to by the turbine which affects the output and hence the efficiency of the
the feedwater system which the amount of water required to heat and overall cycle. By lowering the condenser pressure, the steam is condensed
consequently perform amount of steam. Therefore, the boiler drum level at a lower pressure thus resulting in more expansion through the turbine
control system attached to this boiler is performing well and works which increases the net work done by the turbine. This can be visualized
properly. In addition, the poor level control will effect on drum pressure easily through the T-S diagram of the Rankine Cycle. Figure 7 shows the
control. The water temperature going into the boiler drum through the condenser pressure for different types of coal during the test. Different
feedwater system is not equal to the existing water in the boiler drum. types of coal show different condenser pressure because it influences the
Feeding of the water with high flow rate could reduce drum pressure and rate of heat transfer and consequently affects the thermal cycle efficiency.
cause boiler level shrinkage from the cooling effects. The phenomena
could be same as adding tap water into the pan which contains boiling The lower pressure at which steam condensate, the turbine work net will
water. The heating process occur above the boiling point. increase and results in higher work output by the turbine. In mean time,
the cycle carries same work output and the efficiency of the cycle will
Basically, the control of the boiler drum level is to avoid the shrinking and increase. Similarly, if the condenser pressure increases with less vacuum,
swelling effects to the boiler. The shrinking and swelling phenomena must the steam will condense at a higher pressure resulting in less expansion
be avoided in order to properly control the boiler drum level. Besides that, through the turbine resulting in decreased work output and lesser
the drum level fluctuates because of inconsistency of boiler loading where efficiency. Figure 8 shows the condenser vacuum for different types of coal
the different loading of the boiler is between 1 MW to 3 MW during normal during the test. The steam pressure in the last stage of the steam turbine
operation. In addition, the change of water density will affect the boiler is very low after performing the work. To convert the steam flow to the
pressure change and cause shrinking and swelling to happen. The water in condenser into condensate (liquid/water) it is necessary that the pressure
the drum contains steam bubbles similar to when water was boiled in our be much lower in the condenser to make the steam flow to the condenser.
homes. During a rapid increase in load, a severe rise in level may occur Therefore, vacuum was maintained in the condenser using either vacuum
because of an increase in volume of the bubbles. The increasing of the pump or steam ejector.
volume is the result of a drop in steam pressure from the load increase and
the increase in steam generation from the greater firing rate. In the
meantime, when firing rate increases which was regard to the load
demand, the bubbles start to expand and progressively form. In certain
cases, the water was carried over to the superheater tubes if the boiler
drum level too high and can cause tube defect. Moreover, the firing rate
cycle can result in drum pressure cycles. The drum pressure cycles will
cause a change in drum level.
As the costs of energy production rises, many companies are looking for
ways to increase efficiencies in their energy and power generation. As a Figure 7: Condenser pressure for different types of coal.
Cite The Article: Nuraini A.A., Salmi S., Hairuddin A.A. (2019). Energy Audit Of Subcritical Plant Performance With Different Types Of Subbituminous Coal .
Journal of Mechanical Engineering Research and Developments, 42(4) : 264-268.
Journal of Mechanical Engineering Research and Developments (JMERD) 42(4) (2019) 264-268
transformer and switchgear. Due to that, the limit for power factor is set
up between 0.9 to 0.95 which is an impact to the minimum additional cost
that is paid by the customer. Therefore, the researcher carried out the
study to investigate the behaviour of the power factor in this power plant.
Measurement of the active power which indicated generator work load
was taken during the study. Figure 10 shows the generator active power
in MW units for fou different types of coal. From the figure, the
measurement for active power for all coal types is almost the same and not
Figure 8: Condenser vacuum for different types of coal. much different. The figure also shows that the generator reactive power
was consistently the same during the test. Basically, the measurement was
In addition, the heat available for conversion in a turbine was equal to the done to determine the power factor of a load as one of the factors that
difference between heat content in steam per unit mass at the inlet and affect the efficiency of power transmission. For the record, this thermal
heat content in steam per unit mass at the outlet. The heat content in steam plant generator active power is designed with 802 MW which means the
per unit mass increases with rise in temperature and pressure and maximum output for the generator can go up to 802 MW.
decreases with lowering of the temperature and pressure. Therefore, a
lower pressure in the condenser which is the exit point for the steam
entering the system makes more heat available for conversion into
mechanical energy and thus increases the efficiency of a steam turbine.
From Figure 9 the condenser temperature outlet for different types of coal,
the condenser temperature outlet for coal type B is slightly higher Figure 11: Generator frequency for different types of coal
compared to other types of coal. However, the condenser temperature
outlet for all coal types is within the acceptance limit which is below 45⁰C. 4. CONCLUSION
Thus, it could be concluded that there was effective heat transfer process
In general, the desuperheater system or namely as spray water system
during the conversion of heat energy. Considerably, there is only a small
was not recommended to be applied for controlling the RH steam
difference between the condenser inlet temperature and condenser outlet
temperature during normal operation. For controlling the RH
temperature for the condensate system and it’s indicate that the
temperature, a large volume of water is required for cooling the medium
condensate system performance is in good condition. Besides component
and can cause negative implication to the tube performance, plant
of the boiler and turbine components, the energy analysis also measures
performance in terms of efficiency and plant heat rate. Due to that, the
and indicates the generator performance. Referring to the PPA
desuperheater system is the last protection on maintaining the
requirement, the test is required to measure the generator frequency and
superheated steam and reheat steam temperature. Therefore, the
generator active power during the energy test.
superheated steam and reheat steam temperatures should not be allowed
In addition, the study also conducted and calculated the power factor for within the limit. Increasing the temperature beyond the rated value will
the generator because in power generation, the power factor is the energy result in metallurgical problems and can change the tube material
required to perform work. According to [20], the domain for electrical is behavior. Consequently, it will affect the performance of the superheater
the electrical power which indicates the electrical energy conversion to tube, reheater tube and the other supporting components such as hanging
other energy forms in a period of time. In other words, the power factor is tube, supporting tube attached to the boiler. There were essential
the end product of a voltage drop across the element and current flowing activities to carry out the energy audit or namely as energy assessment. By
through it. The effective power factor is equal to 1.0 and if the power factor looking at the energy assessment result, coal type D better performance
value goes below 1.0, the power plant was required to work harder to compare with designed coal type A.
supply the actual power.
Coal type D present main superheated steam temperature at 540C° with
Typically, the increase of the size could affect the increase of cost to pressure 177.5 bar constantly. Coal type D with GCV 5410 kcal/kg
carryover the extra current for an example like generator, conductors, consume low ton of coal producing full capacity of the boiler 700MW
Cite The Article: Nuraini A.A., Salmi S., Hairuddin A.A. (2019). Energy Audit Of Subcritical Plant Performance With Different Types Of Subbituminous Coal .
Journal of Mechanical Engineering Research and Developments, 42(4) : 264-268.
Journal of Mechanical Engineering Research and Developments (JMERD) 42(4) (2019) 264-268
resulted less feedwater flow compared to other types of coal. For record, [9] Bureau of Energy Efficiency 1. Energy Performance Assessment of
coal type D only consumes less 2000 ton/hour. For the condenser vacuum Boilers Increasing the efficiency of existing coal-fired power plants
and condenser pressure, result shows within acceptance range which is Available at http://www.em-ea.org/guide%20books/book-
between 65 bar to 95 bar. Besides that, the generator performance which 4/4.1%20boiler.pdf
indicates through generator active power and generator frequency, Hertz
for all type of coal shows similar result which is within acceptable range. [10] Abbi, Y.P. 2012. Energy audit: Thermal power, combined cycle, and
The energy assessment gives valuable information on the plant cogeneration plants, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS process cement plant, Energy, 35(3), 1237-1243.
Authors would like to thanks all related staff in this study at the site and [13] Gupta, M.K., Kaushik, S.C. 2010. Exergy analysis and investigation
also guidance from supervisory committee in Universiti Putra Malaysia. for various feed water heaters of direct steam generation solar–thermal
power plant, Renewable Energy, 35(6), 1228-1235.
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Cite The Article: Nuraini A.A., Salmi S., Hairuddin A.A. (2019). Energy Audit Of Subcritical Plant Performance With Different Types Of Subbituminous Coal .
Journal of Mechanical Engineering Research and Developments, 42(4) : 264-268.