Evaluation of a Fossil Steam Cycle and the Uncertainties Involved in the Performance Evaluation Process

Abstract

The competition in the power plant business is today extremely hard and all manufacturers’ technics to achieve as low heat rate in sold power plants are very refined. This in combination with high fees for companies that can’t achieve what’s agreed in the contracts has made the feedback process very important in order to keep the business successful. A fossil power plant has therefore been evaluated as a part in the feedback process at a world leading turbine manufacturer. The aim with this evaluation was to calculate a calibration factor, KP, which then would be used by future tenders. Results from the evaluation of this unit and from four other units have also been used to investigate the evaluation process used by the performance and feedback analyses (PFA) group at the company. The aim of these investigations was to confirm and justify some of the evaluation process steps, which have recently been updated.
This thesis is therefore divided into two major parts. The first part contains the evaluation of the fossil power plant and the second part contains the investigations of four different process steps conducted to ensure their economical worth. During the first part of this thesis has the Performance and feedback analyse group’s, PFA’s, standard procedure to evaluate a fossil power plant been followed while the investigations conducted in the second part of this thesis were something that had never been done before in the company.
Some uncertainties in the measuring campaign are indicated in the reports and the results from the evaluated power plant. Most of them have though been neglected because they have a theoretical very small impact on the final measuring results. Except for this are the results from the evaluation satisfying since they are in line with previously evaluated units. This strengthens the belief in the PFA’s evaluation procedure and the results will in the future be used in order to achieve accurate tendering in the future.
Four of the recent updated evaluation process steps were then investigated to justify the extra time spent in the more precise ways of executing the process steps. Due to some lack of data have only five different units been used for these investigations but the results from the investigations are still good guidelines and should be used in the future. The results from the investigations makes it clear that the work performed by the PFA group, reducing the risk of possible fees, could have a severe economic impact on the company’s profit. The results also indicate that all the four updated process steps investigated are worth the extra time spent many times over.
In general, are the results presented in this thesis satisfying but to further improve the company’s evaluation- and tendering- process, more power plants should be evaluated. This thesis shows the big fees that could be avoided just by minor adjustments to the feedback process and because of this is it recommended for the company to put even more effort into the evaluations.

Popular Abstract

The competition in the power plant business is today extremely hard and all manufacturers’ technics to achieve as low heat rate in sold power plants are very refined. This in combination with high fees for companies that can’t achieve what’s agreed in the contracts has made the feedback process very important in order to keep the business successful. A fossil power plant has therefore been evaluated as a part in the feedback process at a world leading turbine manufacturer. The aim with this evaluation was to calculate a calibration factor, KP, which then would be used by future tenders. Results from the evaluation of this unit and from four other units have also been used to investigate the evaluation process used by the performance and feedback analyses (PFA) group at the company. The aim of these investigations was to confirm and justify some of the evaluation process steps, which have recently been updated.
This thesis is therefore divided into two major parts. The first part contains the evaluation of the fossil power plant and the second part contains the investigations of four different process steps conducted to ensure their economical worth. During the first part of this thesis has the Performance and feedback analyse group’s, PFA’s, standard procedure to evaluate a fossil power plant been followed while the investigations conducted in the second part of this thesis were something that had never been done before in the company.
Some uncertainties in the measuring campaign are indicated in the reports and the results from the evaluated power plant. Most of them have though been neglected because they have a theoretical very small impact on the final measuring results. Except for this are the results from the evaluation satisfying since they are in line with previously evaluated units. This strengthens the belief in the PFA’s evaluation procedure and the results will in the future be used in order to achieve accurate tendering in the future.
Four of the recent updated evaluation process steps were then investigated to justify the extra time spent in the more precise ways of executing the process steps. Due to some lack of data have only five different units been used for these investigations but the results from the investigations are still good guidelines and should be used in the future. The results from the investigations makes it clear that the work performed by the PFA group, reducing the risk of possible fees, could have a severe economic impact on the company’s profit. The results also indicate that all the four updated process steps investigated are worth the extra time spent many times over.
In general, are the results presented in this thesis satisfying but to further improve the company’s evaluation- and tendering- process, more power plants should be evaluated. This thesis shows the big fees that could be avoided just by minor adjustments to the feedback process and because of this is it recommended for the company to put even more effort into the evaluations.

• author: Schander, Carl
• supervisor: Marcus Thern
• organization: Department of Energy Sciences
• course: MVK920 20152
• year: 2016
• type: H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
• subject: Technology and Engineering
• report number: ISRN LUTMDN/TMHP-16/5380-SE
• ISSN: 0282-1990
• language: English
• id: 8894322
• date added to LUP: 2016-10-31 08:27:13
• date last changed: 2016-10-31 08:27:13