Performance assessment of a solar aided dual-fuel supercritical steam power plant for power boosting under different operating loads

Fuel supply due to political conflict and decarbonization is the most challenging standup for the energy sector and electricity generation. Therefore, the present study introduces a thermodynamic analysis for a modeled supercritical solar aided power plant (SAPP) using two types of fuel at different operating loads, i.e., 50%, 75%, and 100%. The proposed SAPP is investigated in terms of energy, exergy, and steam flow rates to verify the advantages of using SAPP over conventional power plants. In the SAPP, the condensate water passes into the heat exchangers using a working fluid of Therminol VP-1. Additionally, the turbine extraction steam at 100% load is minimized, and it is eliminated at 50% and 75% loads. The results show that the recovered amount of feed water extraction increases the mechanical power for SAPP-based natural gas in comparison with the conventional supercritical steam power plant by 16, 21, and 9.7% at an operating load of 50%, 75%, and 100%, respectively. Consequently, SAPP-based natural gas maintains an increase in the overall energy efficiency compared with the CPP of 13.7, 17, and 1.9% at an operating load of 50%, 75%, and 100%, respectively. As well, the mechanical power of the SAPP-based oil fuel increases compared with CPP by 25.7, 27.6, and 17.4% at 50%, 75%, and 100% loads, respectively. Whereas, the overall energy efficiency enhances due to using the SAPP-based oil fuel compared with that of the CPP by 20.6, 21.9, and 7% at a load of 50%, 75%, and 100%, respectively.