Lecture-05

Power plant Engineering

MEE-403

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Economic Evaluation Method

Equipment and fuel costs of power plant have been increasing rapidly in recent years.
Although various methods for economic evaluation of design alternatives have been developed,
the following three methods are commonly used to compare lifetime cost of alternative designs.

-Annual cost method

-Present worth method
-Capitalized cost method

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Annual cost method

-Annual cost is compared among the alternatives.

-The total annual cost generally consist of three terms
C= Cc +Cf +Com
C=I(AFCR)+ Cf+Com
Here, I is capital investment
AFCR is annual fixed charged rate. Fixed charge rate is used to
annualize the total capital cost.

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Present worth method

-This method and the capitalized cost method described later may be regarded as the index methods
of comparison.
-In this method, all annual cost expended during the project lifetime are reduced into present
worth, the mathematical relation can be expressed by,

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Capital cost method

-In this method, a hypothetical amount of capital could be added directly to the capital cost so that
the lifetime fuel cost and O&M cost would be eliminated.

For the selection of alternative designs, engineers usually seek for design having the minimum
value of the total evaluated cost(TEC).

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Theory of Rates

Consumers of electricity are charged for their maximum demands(kW) as well as the energy(kWh)
consumed.
Few requirements for the tariff are, it should-

-be easy to understand

-provide low rates for high consumption
-encourage the consumers having high load factors
-take into account maximum demand charges and energy charges
-provide less charges for power connection than for lighting
-avoid the complication of separate wiring and metering connections

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Theory of Rates

There are various types of tariffs in use, these are

-Flat demand rate

-Straight line meter rate
-Step meter rate
-Block rate tariff
-Two part tariff
-Three part tariff

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Theory of Rates- Flat Demand Rate

-It is based on the number of electrical equipment's installed and a fixed number of hours of
use per month or per year.
-The rate is expressed as a certain price per equipment or per unit of demand(kW) of the
customer.
-The energy rate eliminates the use of metering equipment.

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Theory of Rates- Straight Line Meter Rate

• The amount to be charged from the customer depends upon the energy consumed in kWh which is
recorded by a means of a kilowatt hour meter.
• It is expressed in the form
Y=EZ
E= Energy rate per kWh
Z= Energy consumed in kWh during the giver period.
• This rate suffers from a drawback that a consumer using no energy will not pay any amount
although he has incurred some expense to the power station due to its readiness to serve him.
• Secondly, since the rate per kWh is fixed, the tariff does not encourage the consumer to use more
power.

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Theory of Rates- Step Meter Tariff

The charge for energy consumption goes down as the energy consumption becomes more.

This tariff expressed as follows:

Y=EZ If Z is from 0 to A,
Y=E1Z1 If Z1 is from A to B
Y=E2Z 2 If Z2 is from B to C

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Theory of Rates- Block Rate Tariff

A certain price per unit(kWh) is charged for all or any part of block of each unit and for succeeding
blocks of energy the corresponding unit charges decrease.
It is expressed by the expression

Y= E1Z1 + E2Z2 + E3Z3 + ……………….

Where E1, E2, E3,… are unit energy charges for energy blocks of magnitude Z1, Z2, Z3….
Respectively.

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Theory of Rates- Two Part Tariff
• The total charges are based on the maximum demand and energy consumed.
• It is expressed as

Y= DX + EX
D= Rate per kW of maximum demand
X= Maximum demand in kW

• A separate meter is required to record the maximum demand.

• This tariff is used for industrial load.

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Theory of Rates- Three Part Tariff

• The consumer pays some fixed amount in addition to the charges for maximum demand and
energy consumed.
• The fixed amount to be charged depends upon the occasional increase in fuel price, rise in wages
of labor etc.
• It is expressed by,
Y= DX + EZ + C

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Thermal Power Plant

Power plant, which use thermal energy

produced from any types fuel is known
as thermal Power plant. That thermal
energy refers to chemical energy.

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Fuels

Primary Fuels: Other types of Fuels:

-Coal -Blast furnace gas

-Oil -Coke oven gas
-Natural gas -Biogases
-Saw mil wood dust
-Rice husk

Combination firing: Those other types of fuel may be used to boost one of the fossil fuels-
this process is known as combination firing.

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Fuels

Fossil fuels: Originated From the earth as a result

of slow decomposition or chemical conversion of
organic materials.

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 Coal

Coal is sedimentary rock formed by the accumulation and decay of organic substances, derived from plant
tissues and exudates, which has been buried over period of geological period, along with various mineral
inclusions.

Coals are classified by

1. Type
2. Rank

Coal type classify coal by the plant sources from which it is derived.

Coal rank classifies coal by its degree of metamorphosis from the plant sources and is therefore a measure of
the age of the coal- the process of metamorphosis or aging is termed as coalification.

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Coal

Coal Rank: Use of coal is directly dependent upon Coal rank. Rank increase as
moisture, Volatile matter and hydrogen decrease and as carbon, calorific value and
reflectance increase.

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Coal analysis
The composition of coal is typically reported in terms of its proximate analysis and its ultimate
analysis both done on a percentage basis.

Proximate Analysis indicates the combination of coal; the relative amount in weight percentage basis
of moisture, volatile matter, ash and fixed carbon in coal.

-When 1g of sample of coal is subjected to a temperature of 105C for a time period of 1 hour, the loss
in weight of the sample gives the content of moisture.

-When 1g of sample of coal is placed into a covered platinum crucible and heated about to 950C for a
time period of 7 minutes, there is a loss in weight due to the elimination of volatile matter and
moisture.

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-When 1g of sample of coal is placed to a uncovered crucible and heated about to 720C until the coal
is completely burnt. A constant weight is reached indicating that there is only ash remaining in the
crucible.

• So, the proximate analysis of coal indicates that

FC+VM+M+A=100% by mass

FC= Fixed Carbon

VM= Volatile Matter
M= Moisture
A= Ash

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Ultimate analysis : It indicates the total amount(in mass percentage) of the principle chemical
elements present in coal, such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur etc.
This analysis can be reported on moist or dry basis or on an ash containing basis or ash free basis.

Coal analysis- Heating(Calorific) Value

The Calorific Value can be determined on ash-receive, dry or dry and ash-free basis.
In absence of directly measured value, the gross calorific value can be estimated by using the
formula given below:

Q=14544C+62028[H-(O/8)]+4050S
C, H, O, S are the mass fractions.

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