Power System

What is Power Plant

 

Power or energy (let me remind you at this juncture that though the words are used in the synonymous sense here technically they have somewhat differently meanings) is generated in a power plant which is the place where power is generated from a given source. Actually the term “generated” in the previous sentence is a misnomer since energy cannot be created or destroyed but merely changed from one form to the other more correctly a power plant can be said to be a place where EE obtained by converting some other form of energy the type of energy converted depend on what type of power plant is being considered.

Types of Power Station

  

There are several different types of PP used across the world today. Two will be discussed here very briefly since it is not possible to elaborate on different types of power plants in one article, but they shall be taken one by one in the series. Each of these plants has their own set of advantages and drawbacks from various perspectives and various factors govern which type of power plant.

Thermal Power Station

Thermal power plants use water as working fluid. Nuclear and coal based power plants fall under this category. The way energy from fuel is getting transformed into electricity forms working of a power plant. In a thermal power plant a steam turbine is rotated with help of high pressure and high temperature steam and this rotation is transferred to a generator to produce electricity. When turbine blades get rotated by high pressure high temperature steam, the steam loses its energy. This in turn will result in a low pressure and low temperature steam at outlet of the turbine. Here steam is expanded till saturation point is reached. Since there is no heat addition or removal from the steam, ideally entropy of the steam remains same. If we can bring this low pressure, low temperature steam back to its original state, then we can produce electricity continuously.

Hydro-Electric Power Station

 

Hydroelectric Power plant captures the energy of moving water. There are multiple ways hydro energy can be extracted. Falling water such as in a pen stock flume water heel can be used to drive a hydro turbine. Hydro energy can be extracted from water flowing at the lower section of dams where the pressure forces water to flow. Hydroelectric power generation is efficient cost effective and environmentally cooperative. Hydro power production is considered to be a renewable energy source because the water cycle is continuous and constantly recharge. Water flows much slower through a hydro turbine than does steam through a high-pressure steam turbine. Therefore, several rotor magnetic poles are used to reduce the rotational speed requirement of the hydro turbine shaft. Hydro units have a number of excellent advantages. The hydro unit can be started very quickly and brought up to full Load in a matter of minutes. In most cases little or non-start up power is required the water behind the dam is transported to the turbine my means of a pen stock. The turbine causes the generator to rotor producing which is then delivered to the load center over long distance power lines. The water coming out of the turbine goes into the river.

                                                                P = gpQH

Where g = acceleration due to gravity = 9.81 m/sec 2

ρ = density of water = 1000 kg/m 3

H = height of fall of water.

This power is utilized for rotating the alternator shaft, to convert it to equivalent electrical energy. An important point to be noted is that, the hydro-electric plants are of much lower capacity compared to their thermal or nuclear counterpart. For this reason hydro plants are generally used in scheduling with thermal stations, to serve the load during peak hours. They in a way assist the thermal or the nuclear plant to deliver power efficiently during periods of peak hours.

Power Plants & Types of Power Plant 

1) Power Plant
2) Thermal Power Plant
3) Steam Boiler 
4) Fire Tube Boiler
5) Water Tube Boiler
6) Boiler Feed Water Treatment 
7) Feed Water and Steam Circuit of Boiler
8) Steam Boiler Furnace
9) Combustion Theory
10) Methods of Firing Steam Boiler
11) Fluidized Bed Combustion
12) Hydro Power Plant
13) Co-generation
14) Solar Energy System
15) Basic Wind Energy
16) Wind Turbine
17) Theory of Wind Turbine
18) Thermoelectric Power Generators
19) Magneto Hydro Dynamic Power Generation
20) Economics of Power Generation
21) Economizer in Thermal Power Plant
22) Steam Condenser of Turbine
23) Jet Steam Condenser
24) Surface Steam Condenser
25) What is Power Plant?
26) Types of Power Station
27) Thermal Power Station
28) Nuclear Power Station
29) Hydro-Electric Power Station
30) Types of Power Generation

Types of Power Generation


As mentioned above, depending on the type of fuel used the power generating stations as well as the types of power generation are classified. Therefore the 3 major classifications for power production in reasonably large scale are:

1) Thermal power generation.

2) Nuclear power generation.

3) Hydro-electric power generation.

 

Apart from these major types of power generations, we can resort to small scale generation techniques as well, to serve the discrete demands. These are often referred to as the alternative methods of power generation and can be classified as

1) Solar power generation (making use of the available solar energy)

2) Geo-thermal power generation (Energy available in the Earth’s crust)

3) Tidal power generation.

These alternative sources of generation has been given due importance in the last few decades owing to the depleting amount of the natural fuels available to us. In the centuries to come, a stage might be reached when several countries across the globe would run out of their entire reserve for fossil fuels. The only way forward would then lie in the mercy of these alternative sources of energy which might play an instrumental role in shaping the energy supplies of the future. For this reason these might rightfully be referred as the energy of the future.