Control of CO2 emission through enhancing energy efficiency of auxiliary power equipment in thermal power plant

This paper describes the results of energy efficiency enhancement in 23 numbers of 210 MW coal fired power plants spread over India. Energy efficiency improvement of major auxiliary equipment with different plant load factors are summarized here with improved performance. The effect of plant load factor on all major auxiliary equipment and improvement in performance of auxiliary equipment are discussed in this paper. Operation of the plant at improved plant load factor reduced the specific auxiliary power from 11.23% at 70% PLF to 8.74% at 100% PLF that reduced the net auxiliary power by 9.1 MU/year that is an equivalent reduction of CO2 emission by 9500 t/year. Optimizing the excess air, controlling the furnace ingress, enhanced energy efficiency of individual equipment by proper maintenance, etc., improves the plant capacity and reduces the overall auxiliary power by about 1.5-2.1% of gross energy generation i.e., equivalent CO2 reduction of 23,000-32,400 t/year and release an additional power of about 3.5 MW (for a typical one 210 MW power plant) into grid. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.