General Layout of the Plant

Though each plant is unique in itself in terms of specific features and

functionalities, still there is a broad outline to which all thermal power plants
confirm to and in this article we will study about the general layout of a typical
power plant.

There are four main circuits in any thermal power plant and these are

1. Coal & Ash Circuit – this circuit deals mainly with feeding the boiler with
coal for combustion purposes and taking care of the ash that is generated
during the combustion process and includes equipment and paraphernalia
that is used to handle the transfer and storage of coal and ash.
2. Air & Gas Circuit – we know that air is one of the main components of the
fire triangle and hence necessary for combustion. Since lots of coal is
burnt inside the boiler it needs a sufficient quantity of air which is supplied
using either forced draught or induced draught fans. The exhaust gases
from the combustion are in turn used to heat the ingoing air through a heat
exchanger before being let off in the atmosphere. The equipment which
handles all these processes fall under this circuit.
3. Feed Water & Steam Circuit – this section deals with supplying of steam
generated from the boiler to the turbines and to handle the outgoing steam
from the turbine by cooling it to form water in the condenser so that it can
be reused in the boiler plus making good any losses due to evaporation
etc.
4. Cooling Water Circuit – this part of the thermal power plant deals with
handling of the cooling water required in the system. Since the amount of
water required to cool the outgoing steam from the boiler is substantial, it
is either taken from a nearby water source such as a river, or it is done
through evaporation if the quantity of cooling water available is limited.

Lay out

Steam is the most common working fluid used in steam/Thermal power plant
because of its many desirable characteristics, such as low cost, availability and high
enthalpy of vaporization. The general arrangement and layout of basic elements of
thermal power plant is shown below.
A thermal power plant can be roughly divided into three segments (1) the furnace boiler
and auxiliaries (2) The turbine which includes condensor, pump, feed waterheaters and
rejection system. (3) the electric generator.

Working:
 Feed water flowing into the boiler is first preheated in the economiser, which
recover the part or heat from the flue gases flowing to the chimney and then going

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 to the atmosphere.This increases the efficiency as less heat must be supplied to
the boiler.
 The steam generated in the boiler may be wet or dry. It is superheated in the
superheater which again takes the heat from the flue gases moving towards the
chimney.
 The superheated steam is supplied to the turbine which generated power.
 In condensor the latent heat of vaporization of steam is transferred to the
circulating waste water supplied from cooling tower.
 The boiler feed pump raises the feed water pressure and sends water to boiler
through high pressure feed water heaters.

Advantages and disadvantages of Thermal power plants.

Advantages:

1.They can be located very conviniently near the load centres.

2.Does not require shielding like required in nuclear power plants.
3. Unlike nuclear power plants whose power production method is difficult, for
thermal power plants it is easy if compared.
4.Transmission costs are reduced as they can be set up near the industry.

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 5.The portion of steam generated can be used as process steam in different
industries.
6.Steam engines and turbines can work under 25% of overload capacity.
7.Able to respond changing loads without difficulty.

Disadvantages:

1.Large amounts of water are required.

2.Great difficulties experienced in coal handling and disposal of ash.
3.Takes long time to be erected and put into action.
4.Maintenance and operating costs are high.
5.With increase in pressure and temperature, the cost of plant increases.
6.Troubles from smoke and heat from the plant.

Site selection parameters for thermal power plant.

Following factors must be considered while selecting the site of thermal power station.

1)Availability of water Thermal power plant uses water as working fluid which is
repeatedly evaporated and condensed. There is always some water loss and make up
water is always required. Water is used in large volumes in a steam power plant for
following purposes.
 In boiler to raise the steam
 For cooling purposes such as in condensors
 As a carrying medium such as in disposal of ash
 For drinking purpose.Thus for a 250MW power station, cooling water required
may be 62X10
 6 litres per hour and make up water required may be something 1 million litre per
hour. So while selecting a site for the thermal power plant, water is the most
important factor.

2)Land
Considerable area is required for a power station. For a 2000MW plant, the land
requirement may be of order of 250 to 300 acres.The cost of land should be reasonable.
Staff colony, coal storage, ash disposal requires appropriate amount of land. If the site is
far away from a big city then entirely new facilities such as marketing, dairies, etc will
have to be provided for the staff. The distribution of land can be
Building=10%
Coal storage= 33%
Cooling towers= 27%
Switch yard=7%
Other areas= 23%
Hence land is also an important factor for site selection of thermal power station.

3)Availability of raw material

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Modern steam power stations using coal and oil as fuel require large quantity of it per
annum. A plant consumes a large quantity of coal so it should be located as near as
possible to the coal fields to save the transportation charges. Besides transportation
charges a plant located away from the coal fields may face some problems like, there may
be failure of transportation system, strike at the mines, etc.
For such reasons a considerable amount of coal (at least 15 days supply) must be
stored at all power station. It will be convinient to locate the power station to the nearest
railway station if the coal fields are far away from the power station.In case it is not
possible to locate the power station near railway station, at least arrangement should be
made for a railway siding to the power plant so that the coal wagon can be shunted from
station to the site of power plant.

4) Topography
The civil engineering work involved in erecting the plant should be minimum.
This involves levelling of the site, foundation work, etc. Site subsoil should not require
filling or blasting. Also soil should not contain mineral deposits.

5)Expansion
The site should allow for economical extension due to growth of load. It means
while selecting land some land should be aquired for future expansion of plant.

6)Pollution
Site selected should not creat any sort of nuisance to the neighboring areas due to
emission of smoke, noise , pollutants, water vapour, etc.

7)Ash disposal
Ash is the main waste product of steam power plant.If the site is near the
coalmine, then it can be dumped into the disused mines. Or the site may be near a river, a
sea or lake into which the ash can be dumped.Some sites acquire waste land for ash
disposal.

8)Town planning.
Since the workers have to remain in the plant for non-stop working of thermal
power plant, facility for them and their family to live near the plant should be done.