A novel performance monitoring strategy for economical thermal power plantoperation

A need-based integrated performance monitoring strategy is proposed to econ omize the operation of a thermal power plant, exploiting the immensely powe rful resources of newly retrofitted modern Distributed Control System (DCS) . After reviewing the performance monitoring practice of a typical 200 MW o il/gas fired thermal power plant at Ballylumford, N. Ireland, the paper ana lyses its shortcomings and then suggests remedial measures through the prop osed strategy. A simulation of this plant has been used for investigation p urposes. The twin key aspects of performance monitoring, i.e, monitoring of performance indices and controllable parameters, are addressed in more eff ective and novel ways. The achievable best efficiency values of plant compo nents, needed for comparative performance evaluation, are shown to be more reliably and accurately obtainable through neural network performance model s. A method based on histogram plots is shown to be highly effective in mon itoring the performance of plant controllers in reducing the variability of plant variables and then modifying the set-points to improve the thermal p erformance of the plant.