POWER PLANT

ENGINEERING
(SUBJECT CODE 18PE0ME2A)
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
GNITC
UNIT-V
 UNIT – V
Power Plant Economics And Environmental Considerations: Capital
cost, investment of fixed charges, operating costs, general
arrangement of power distribution, Load curves, load duration
curve. Definitions of connected load, Maximum demand, demand
factor, average load, load factor, diversity factor – related exercises.
Effluents from power plants and Impact on environment – pollutants
and pollution standards – Methods of Pollution control.
 The power plant should supply power to the consumer at the minimum possible cost per
kWh.
 The cost of power for a consumer includes the costs of generation, the cost of
transmission and distribution, and miscellaneous costs such as building rentals,
administrative expenses, overhead of establishment, taxes and return or profit on the
investment.
 The cost of power generation is a major factor of the total power costs to the consumer.
 The cost of power generation is made up of fixed cost and operating cost.
 The fixed cost includes interest on capital investment, taxes, insurance, depreciation and
management cost.
 The operating cost consists of cost of fuel, labour, water, repairs, maintenance and
supervision.
The power generation cost per unit (one unit means one kWh) calculated on an annual
basis is given by:

The total amount of unit supplied per annum is obtained by

The total amount of unit supplied per annum = total amount of unit generated (kWh gen) –
power consumption by the plant auxiliaries
The total amount of unit generated by the power plant can be calculated as follows:
Total amount of unit generated (kWhgen) = average load × 8760
= installed capacity × capacity factor × 8760
The total annual cost in a power plant can be calculated as:
Total annual cost = fixed cost + operating cost
FIXED COST
It depends on the initial cost or construction cost or capital investment in the installation of
complete plant.
Construction cost:
The construction cost or initial cost or capital investment of a power plant is the expenditure
incurred from planning phase to complete installation of the power plant. It covers
 expenses for planning and design,
 cost of land,
 expenses for rail or road connection to the plant site,
 expenses for construction of building and machinery foundations,
 cost of the equipment,
 expenses for erection and testing of equipment, and overhead charges, which includes the
transportation cost, stores and storekeeping charges, interest paid during construction,
etc.
 The plant construction cost or investment cost is usually expressed on the basis of kW
capacity installed.
Interest:
 All enterprises need investment of money and can be obtained as a loan, through bonds
and shares or from owners of personal funds.
 The interest is the cost of money use, to the borrower. It is the difference between the
money returned and the money borrowed.
 Even if the owner invests his own capital, the charge of interest is necessary to cover the
income that he would have derived from it through fixed deposit with a bank or an
alternative investment. The interest rate depends on financial condition at the time of
construction and source of funding.
Depreciation:
 Devices or equipments deteriorate and become obsolete with age. Thus, the
value of equipment decreases every year and the equipment will have a
certain period of useful life.
 Depreciation accounts for the decrease in value of equipment due to
deterioration and obsolescence.
 Annual depreciation amount is the amount set aside each year, so that at the end of useful
life of equipment, the owner may be able to set up or purchase new equipment with the
amount thus deposited and accumulated.
 For the purpose of calculating depreciation, the service life of thermal, nuclear and hydel
power plants may be taken respectively as 30, 30, and 40 years.
Taxes:
 There are numerous forms of taxes such as property tax, income tax, sales tax, social
security tax, unemployment tax, etc. are paid to various agencies such as municipality, the
state government, and the central government.
 Taxes like property tax depend entirely upon the magnitude of the capital invested;
others like sales tax depends on the volume of business,
 Taxes that are a function of capital investment only should be included in the fixed cost;
other taxes should be charged to operating costs.
Insurance:
 Insurance is the amount paid by advance regular payments to secure compensation in the
event of loss or damage to property, life, a person, etc.
 An enterprise may often be self insured if it is very large and has its properties scattered
over a considerable region.
 The enterprise periodically keeps some amount aside out of its earnings similar to
depreciation.
OPERATING COST
 The operating or running cost is a variable factor dependent mainly on the
amount of energy generated.
 It includes fuel cost, operating labour cost, maintenance cost, supplies,
supervision, operating taxes, etc.
 It cannot be expressed as a percentage of capital investment because it
depends on various factors.
 In a thermal power plant the major contributing factor in total operating
cost is the cost of fuel, which may be about 75% of total operating cost.
 In a nuclear power plant fuel costs are lower but operation and
maintenance cost is much more than a conventional thermal plant.
 The operating cost of hydroelectric plant is considerably less due to the
absence of fuel cost.
Fuel:
In case of thermal power plant, a major part of the operating cost is on fuel, which may be
coal, oil, and natural gas.
The fuel cost depends on the unit price of fuel, the amount of energy generated and the
efficiency of the plant.
The unit price of fuel includes not only its price at the site of purchase but its transportation
and handling costs also.
The cost of ash handling must be included in estimating the fuel cost for coal fired thermal
power plant.
In a nuclear power plant, the fuel cost includes cost of the fissile material consumed and
credit for the fissile material produced from the fertile material.
Labour:
 In a power plant, the labour and operators are required for various activities and
operations.
 In case of automatic power plant, the labour cost is reduced to a great extent.
 The labour cost decreases with an increase in the capacity of the power plant.
 The nuclear power plants require highly skilled persons as well as more expenditure on
employee health, safety and insurance.
Maintenance cost:
 Preventive maintenance and corrective maintenance are required for proper functioning
and to avoid plant breakdown.
 The expenditure incurred for the maintenance is charged under the maintenance cost and
sometimes an arbitrary percentage is assumed as maintenance cost.
 Maintenance cost depends on the type of power plant and for conventional power plant, it
decreases in the following order: nuclear power plant, thermal power plant and
hydroelectric power plant.
Supplies:
The items which are not included in the categories of fuel or maintenance are charged to
supplies account.
Supplies usually cover items such as water for plant and general use, lubricating oil, water
treatment chemicals, paints, tools, and wiping clothes.
Supervision:
 Supervising staff is needed to exercise control over the operating staff for better plant
operation. The salary of supervising staff is included in this head.
 The supervising staff includes the general manger, manager, engineer, chemist,
supervisors, stores in charge, purchase officer, etc.
Operating taxes:
Taxes that are a function of capital investment only are included in the fixed cost; while the
other taxes should be charged to the operating cost.
The operating taxes include the income tax, sales tax and social security and employee's
security, etc.
Connected load:
It is the sum of the rated capacity of all devices belonging to a group of various consumers
consuming electrical energy supplied by a power plant or grid.
Maximum demand:
 The demand of power is the sum of the energy requirements of those devices which are in
actual operation at a given time.
 The maximum demand is the maximum electrical power requirement of the group of
various consumers connected to a power plant or grid.
 The maximum demand of the group of various consumers would be equal to the
connected load if all the devices run to their fullest extent simultaneously.
 The maximum demand determines the size of the plant and its cost.
Demand Factor.
It is expressed as the ratio of maximum demand to the connected load. The maximum value
of demand factor is unity.
Average Load.
The average load is obtained by dividing the area under the load curve (expressed in kWh)
by the time period considered (say 24 hours). The average load is shown in Fig. Thus,

Thus
Load Factor.
It is defined as the ratio of average load for a given period to the peak or maximum load
during the same period determined by the consumer. It is always less than unity. Thus,

If a plant has a peak load of 2000 MW in a year but the average annual load is 900 MW,
thus the annual load factor will be 0.45.
This mcans that most of its capacity remains unutilised for the major part of the year, so the
cost per kWh would be high.
Thus, the load factor refers to the economic health of the plant.
A high load factor is, in general, an indication of balanced load curve with small load
changes.
Capacity Factor or Plant Factor.
It is defined as the ratio of actual power produced in a period (say one year) to the rated
capacity. It may also be expressed as average load to the plant rated capacity.

Diversity Factor.
It is used to measure the time distribution of maximum demands for similar type of
consumers. Diversity factor is defined as the ratio of sum of the maximum demands of the
individual consumers and the simultaneous maximum demand of the whole group during a
particular time. Thus,

It is always greater than unity.

High diversity factor is desirable to reduce simultaneous maximum demand on the plant
which in turn reduces the installed capacity of the plant and consequently a lower capital
investment.
Higher diversity factor improves the overall load factor thereby reducing the per unit
generation cost.
LOAD CURVE
 In order to estimate the expected maximum load, the most useful tool is the construction
of hypothetical load curve.
 A curve showing the load demand (variations) of consumer with respect to time is known as
load curve.

Different Types of Load Curves.

The load curve may be daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly for industrial, urban, residential,
street and metropolitan.
The area under a load curve gives the energy consumed for that duration and this area
divided by the duration of the curve gives the average load.
From the load curve one can get the maximum load, the number of unit consumed, the
average load and the load factor.
If a load curve is drawn on hourly basis for one day, then this curve is called daily load
curve or chronological load curve.
Load duration curve:
 The load duration curve is obtained from load curve
data by arranging the loads in descending order of
magnitude.
 Also the total duration for which a particular load
demand or more than this demand exists on the
power plant is determined from load curve data.
 Load duration curve is the curve plotted between
load and the time duration within a specified period,
during which the load equals or exceeds the values
shown.
 The abscissa of any point, on load duration curve,
shows the total duration of specified time period
during which the load exceeds the value denoted by
its ordinate.
 From the yearly load duration curve we can decide
the size of plant, installed capacity, reserve capacity
and the number of generating units.
 The area under the load duration curve represents the total energy supplied by the power
plant units during the year.
 The yearly load duration curve provides the information about the base load and peak
load on the system.
 With the help of the load duration curve and for economical operation
 The daily load curve is usually divided in three parts namely base load, intermediate load
and peak load.
 The base load is the load below which the demand never falls and is supplied 100% of the
time. Generally, the peak load occurs for small period (say 15% of the day time). The
remaining load region represents the intermediate load.
 The base load plants are loaded very heavily, and so its operation costs are of much
significance for the whole plants. A high capital cost of base load plant may be permissible
if its operating costs are low.
 Intermediate load plants are somewhat smaller in size than base load plants.
 As peaking load plants are needed for a
smaller fraction of time, so the fuel costs
are not much importance but minimum
capital costs are the criterion for their
selection.
The average major contributors to air pollution are motor vehicles (about 60%), industries
(about 17%); Fossil power plants (about 14%), rest (9%).
The power plant pollutants of most concern are—
(i) From fossil power plants (ii) From nuclear power plant
(a) Sulfur oxides (a) Radioactive release
(b) Nitrogen oxides (b) Radioactive wastes
(c) Carbon oxides (c) Thermal pollution
(d) Particulate matter (smoke, dust and other solids)
(e) Thermal pollution
In addition, pollutants such as lead and hydrocarbons are contributed primarily by motor
vehicles.
The most commonly observed pollutants from fossil power plants (oil or coal based) are the
following:
(a) Sulphur oxide (SOx)
(b) Nitrogen oxides (NOx)
(c) Carbon oxides (COx)
(d) Particulate matter or PM
(e) Thermal pollution
Coal-fired power plants directly emit particulate matter (PM, also called “soot”) in addition
to gases that undergo chemical reactions to form fine particles in the atmosphere: SO x and
NOx.
These emissions of PM in conjunction with SOx and NOx increase the ambient concentration
of PM less than 2.5 μm in diameter (PM2.5) over hundreds to thousands of kilometres
downwind of the plants.
Continuous exposure to PM2.5 may lead to increased mortality from cardiopulmonary
diseases, lung cancer and numerous other respiratory illnesses and associated morbidity.
Oxides of Sulphur
Sulphur in the atmosphere exists essentially in the following three forms:
1. Sulphur dioxide, SO2 that comes from artificial causes.
2. Hydrogen sulphide, H2S that comes from natural sources.
3. Various sulphates that come from sea spray and oxidation of SO2
Sulphur dioxide
Since it comes from artificial causes, it is of primary concern even though it contributes less
than 25 per cent of all sulphur in the atmosphere.
It is estimated that more than 90 million tons of sulphur dioxide are discharged to the
atmosphere every year.
Effects
Acid rain and acid snow are caused by SO2, hydrogen sulphide, H2S and the oxides of
nitrogen, NOx in the atmosphere.
These gases carried along wind currents combine with water molecules in the water vapour
of the atmosphere, forming tiny drops.
These drops mainly contain nitric acid, HNO3 and sulphuric acid, H2SO4. These drops when
encountered by snow or rain-producing clouds result in acid rain which:
(a) Results in lowering of pH values of lakes and streams.
(b) Results in leaching of essential plant nutrients from soil and reduce nitrogen fixation by
microorganism. This makes soil less fertile.
(c) Dissolve aluminium and cadmium out of soil minerals, allowing them to enter roots and
kill trees.
Oxides of Nitrogen
 Production of NOx is an endothermic reaction and its concentration is temperature
dependent.
 NOx emissions can be reduced by lowering the combustion temperature and by
eliminating hot spots in the furnace.
 It can also be inhibited by lowering the air–fuel ratio or by employing exhaust gas re-
circulation.
 Lowering the air–fuel ratio restricts the amount of oxygen available for combustion while
exhaust gas recirculation reduces the combustion chamber temperature.
Oxides of Carbon
Carbon monoxide, CO, methane, CH4 and carbon dioxide, CO2 are the most widely used
contaminants.
Carbon monoxide is caused by natural causes partially, such as marsh gas, coal mines, vegetation
and forest fires. This contribution is small when compared to human generated causes.
A total of 90 per cent of CO is produced by motor vehicles, whereas power plants contribute less
than 1 per cent. The CO additions to the entire earth’s atmosphere are about 230 million tons/year.
Effects
(i) Like NO, it deprives body tissues from oxygen by absorbing haemoglobin.
(ii) A CO concentration of 100 ppm causes headache, 500 ppm causes collapse and 1,000
ppm is fatal.
Carbon dioxide
 It is largely contributed by power plants. CO2 added to nature by natural causes such as
decay of organic matter contributes more than that by artificial causes.
 CO2 contaminates the atmosphere; it is not considered as a pollutant as it is essential for
plants.
 CO2 can be removed by photosynthesis. This process converts CO 2 back into oxygen and
organic compounds in the presence of sunlight and water.
Particulate Matter PM
 PM comprises smoke, dust and other solids made of a wide variety of organics and
metals. Both natural and human activities are responsible for PM in the atmosphere.
 Natural causes include natural dust caused by wind, storms, volcanoes and natural fires,
meteoritic dust and fog. Fog when combined with smoke forms smog.
 Human causes include dust and ash emanating from large industries, fossil-based power
plants and other combustion processes. Out of these, power plants contribute to about
one-third. Sulphur compounds are larger contributors to PM.
Effects
(a) Decreases visibility, increases soiling and corrosion and affects climatic conditions.
(b) Causes health hazard, which causes breathing problem with particulate sizes ranging
between 2 and 1.25 μm. An individual breathes about 1 mg of particulate matter/day during
times of heavy pollution. These particles deposit in the mucous lining and deeper parts of
lungs.
(c) Particulate matter in the atmosphere is highly toxic; it absorbs toxic substances and
obstructs respiratory passages. An annual mean of 100–200 μg/m3 results in respiratory
illness, whereas 300–600 μg/m3 causes a large increase in the number of patients suffering
from bronchitis.
THERMAL POLLUTION
 The discharge of thermal energy into natural waters is called thermal pollution.
 The addition of heat to the water reduces the water’s ability to hold dissolved gases,
including dissolved oxygen that is vital for aquatic life.
 If the water temperature exceeds 35℃, the dissolved oxygen contents are low to support
life.
 At lower temperature, aquatic growth is enhanced and most plants and fishes grow at a
faster rate. During cold weather, warm water discharge from a power plant is an
excellent place for fishes.
Pollution from Nuclear Power Plants
Effects of nuclear radiation
Biological damage by interaction of radiation and tissue:
(i) Ionization – λ-, β-, γ-radiations ionize tissues into which they penetrate
resulting in complete damage of tissue.
(ii) Displacement – atom in the tissue is displaced by neutron and γ-radiation.
(iii) Absorption – absorption of neutron by a tissue nucleus leads to radioactive
nucleus, which results in change in chemical nature and malfunctioning of cell.
Due to this, cell gets damaged, leading to genetic modification.
Inhalation of radioactive material through air, food and water result in
radiation hazard.
Handling Nuclear Waste and Safety Measures
Wastes associated with nuclear power are as follows:
(i) Gaseous effluents
Under normal operation, these are released slowly from the power plants into the biosphere
and become diluted and dispersed harmlessly.
(ii) Uranium mine and mill tailings
Tailings are residues from uranium mining and milling operations.
They contain low concentration of naturally occurring radioactive materials. They are
generated in large volumes and are stored at the mine or mill sites.
(iii) Low level wastes
 Low-level waste (LLW) includes items that have become contaminated with radioactive
material or have become radioactive through exposure to neutron radiation.
 This waste typically consists of contaminated protective shoe covers and clothing, wiping
rags, mops, filters, reactor water treatment residues, equipment's and tools, luminous
dials, medical tubes, swabs, injection needles, syringes, laboratory animal carcasses and
tissues, etc.
 These contain less than 10 nCi per gram of trans-uranium contaminants containing low,
but potentially hazardous, concentrations of radioactive materials.
 These are generated in almost all activities (power generation, medical, industrial, etc.)
involving radioactive materials, require little or no shielding.
 Low level wastes are disposed of in liquid form by shallow land burial.
(iv) High-level wastes
 High-level wastes (HLWs) are generated in reprocessing of spent fuel.
 They contain all fission products and contain most of the trans-uranium elements not
separated during reprocessing.
 HLWs wastes are to be disposed off carefully. Since the only way for radioactive waste
finally to become harmless is through decay
 HLWs can take hundreds of thousands of years; the wastes must be stored and finally
disposed off in such a way that it provides adequate protection of the public.
(v) Spent fuel
This is unprocessed spent fuel that is
removed from the reactor core after
reaching its end-of-life core service.
It is removed and then stored for 3–4
months under water in the plant site to
give time for the most intense radioactive
isotopes to decay before shipment for
reprocessing or disposal.
Note: Units of nuclear radiation –
Roentgen: amount of radiation that will,
on passing through pure air under
standard condition, produce 1
electrostatic unit of ions/cm3 of air ⇒ 86.9
ergs of energy absorbed/gm of air, Rem –
dose of absorbed that will have the same
effect that exposure to 1 Roentgen of γ-
radiation will have ⇒ 100 ergs/gm of
tissue, total dose driving a person’s life
time < 200 Rem weekly dose < 0.3 Rem.
A Typical Fuel Cycle. shows a typical fuel cycle generating
these wastes.
Radioactive Waste Disposal
 One of the major problems in the nuclear plants is the disposal of waste products that are
highly radioactive.
 They emit large quantities of γ-rays, and these high energy γ-rays destroy all living
matter through which they pass.
 The radioactive products of 400 MW power station would be equivalent to 100 tons of
radium daily, and the radioactive effect of this plant products if exposed to atmosphere
would kill all the living organisms within an area about 1002 miles.
 In a nuclear fuel cycle, the solid, liquid and gaseous radioactive wastes are produced at
different stages.
 Moderate active solid wastes are buried in the ground.
 Moderate liquid wastes after preliminary treatments are discharged in deep pits or day
well from which they sweep out into the surrounding ground.
 Active liquids are kept in concrete tanks, and these tanks are buried in the ground until
their decay of radioactivity.
 Gaseous wastes are discharged to atmosphere through high stacks if the wind permits.
The waste is disposed to air, ground and ocean.
(a) Air
There are lots of problems in disposing radioactive gases in to the air.
strong radioactive gases such as strontium and iodine are absorbed by the plants and they
enter in to the human body through food.
Cesium is absorbed in muscle and strontium in bones and paralyses the health.
Generally, radioactive gases are collected and stored in a tank buried in the ground and
disposed off to the atmosphere when activity level is sufficiently low.
The amount of radioactivity presently disposed to the air is well below the harmful level, but
the problem will get serious when large number of power reactors will come up in operation.
(b) Ground
This is one of the easy and cheapest methods of disposal because soil absorbs radioactive
material easily.
This disposal is suitable mostly in areas of low rainfall at points that are high above the
ground water level.
Most of the radio activeness of waste is removed just by storage. The storage problem is
simplified by separating cesium and strontium that are extremely radioactive.
These are generally stored in tanks that are buried in ground and then disposed in to the sea
after 13 years of storage.
METHODS OF POLLUTION CONTROL
With stringent air quality restriction by the governments, majority of the power plants in
the world use ESPs for dust removal and FGD technology for sulphur removal.
An ESP can handle large volumes of flue gases accompanied low pressure drop and high
collection efficiency (99.5%). It facilitates easy removal of dust particles.
ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATOR
Figure shows a general arrangement of an ESP. It consists of two sets of electrodes the
emitting or discharging electrode and collecting electrode.
The emitting electrodes are connected to negative polarity of high voltage (20–100 kV) DC
source.
The collecting electrodes are connected to the positive polarity of the source and earthed.
When high voltage is applied, it generates
a unidirectional non-uniform electric
field having greater magnitude at the
discharge electrodes. This results in a
blue luminous glow, called a corona
around them.
This corona is an indication of negatively
charged ionized gas molecules that travel
from discharge electrodes to grounded
collection electrodes.
The dust particles thus get deposited on
the collector electrodes and lose their
Remaining dust particles cling to the electrode surface due to electrical resistivity, are removed by
rapping the electrodes using rapping motors.
FGD Technology
FGD is a technology that extracts sulphur dioxides from flue gases produced in coal-based
thermal power plants, where sulphur content in coal is more than 0.5 per cent.
The coal produced from Indian mines contains only 0.4 per cent sulphur contents
Now, a lot of companies in India are importing coal from other countries such as Indonesia,
South Africa, which contains sulphur contents 0.6–0.9 percent.
Therefore, it is made mandatory to install the FGD plant to maintain the ambient air quality
standards.
Sulphur dioxide is extracted from flue gases in wet scrubber, slurry of alkaline sorbent; lime stone
reacts with the sulphur dioxide.
More than 90 per cent of the limestone particles in the limestone powder (85% purity) are made
to pass through a screen (325 mesh) to ensure that maximum amount of limestone particles comes
in contact with the sulphur dioxide molecules in the flue gas.
To have a chemical reaction, the limestone powder is mixed into 15–30 per cent slurry introduced
into the FGD vessel, re-circulated, and sprayed into the flue gas stream.