Design of a Practical Controller for a Commercial Scale Fossil Power Plant

Abstract

To design an improved fuel controller for an operating, 386 MW(e), oil-fired power generation system, a mathematical model of the plant was developed from fundamental principles to predict thermal-hydraulic transients. This controller was successfully implemented in the actual plant by replacing a portion of the original control system. It was shown that the resulting minimum operating level of the system could be reduced from 220 MW (e) to flash tank level of 130 MW(e), and the customary load rate of change during normal operation improved from approximately 2 MW/min to 9 MW/min. Operation of the plant on automatic dispatch was subsequently demonstrated.