Performance Diagnostics of Pulverized Coal Fuelled Power Generation Plant Using Exergy-Based Specific Consumption Analysis

Exergy analysis approved to be a powerful tool for assessing the thermodynamic performance of energy conversion processes. As one of the extensions, the Specific Analysis Approach is trying to deliver the spatial and temporal information on decomposed exergy losses of an energy conversion process in both absolute and relative terms, in a way that users are familiar with. The conceptual and computational complexities of exergy analyses are left behind the easily understood and accessible thermodynamic performance indicators, such as specific fuel consumption of the total plant and of different equipment components, under different load and time series. In this paper, this approach has been implemented in diagnosing the operating performances of a 300MW pulverized coal fired unit. The results show clearly the energy saving potential of the whole plant, and of different components. The possible equipment failures at the state the data were acquired were diagnosed.