Simulation and analysis of a combined cycle heat and power plant process

The regulations of process efficiency and stricter environmental policies require analysis of large-scale thermal energy systems to produce highly efficient, cost effective and low environmental impact energy. For analysis, it is beneficial to simulate an energy system. In this paper, simulation models are developed for the analysis of a combined cycle heat and power plant located in Göteborg, Sweden. With the help of simulation models, characteristics between district heating (DH) water temperature and key parameters such as overall district heat duty, electrical power and electrical efficiency has been developed. The characteristics are useful to estimate and maximize the key parameters during varying DH water temperature. According to a comparison between the full-load simulation models of 2006 and 2013 for the selected power plant, a loss of 2 MW is noticed for gas turbine and a loss of 2.18 MW of heat flow occurs for heat recovery steam generator in the year 2013. The feasibility analysis of modifying the connection between DH economizer and main DH line provides good performance indicators in a winter scenario. The conclusions in this paper are good references to plan and improve the performance of existing large-scale thermal power plants.