AUTHORS: Louis Van Der Westhuizen, Igor A. Gorlach

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ABSTRACT: Power plants are critical in producing the electricity required by modern society. In the majority of countries in the world, including South Africa, the primary sources of electricity are fossil fuel power generation plants. A rapidly increase share of renewable generation places huge demands on conventional coalfired power plants. The inherent variability of renewable energy sources implies that coal-fired plants designed for continuous base load production must now be used for variable load. This can have negative effect on the overall efficiency and life expectancy of these plants. The challenge is, therefore, to balance the network demands with the power station operation, its thermal efficiency, availability and extended plant life expectancy. Hence, the main focus of the current research is on the efficiency of the boiler operation and control through modelling of the boiler subsystems, the processes and simulating various operating conditions, which include fluctuation loads, trips and other important scenarios. In this paper, a model of the boiler drum is presented. The model was developed using Flownex simulation environment software, consisting of the thermo-fluid model as well as the control system model, which are seamlessly integrated providing an efficient tool for design and analysis. The developed model allows to predict behaviour of the boiler and its subsystems and observer fluctuations of the critical process parameters, as well, as to perform a sensitivity analysis and to assist control engineers to improve the plant efficiency.

KEYWORDS: Power generation, boiler control, boiler modelling

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