The analysis of the reliability and availability of power plants is frequently based on simple indexes that do not take into account the criticality of some failures used for availability analysis. This criticality should be evaluated based on concepts of reliability which consider the effect of a component failure on the performance of the entire plant. System reliability analysis tools provide a root-cause analysis leading to the improvement of the plant maintenance plan. Taking in view that the power plant performance can be evaluated not only based on thermodynamic related indexes, such as heat-rate, Thermal Power Plant Performance Analysis focuses on the presentation of reliability-based tools used to define performance of complex systems and introduces the basic concepts of reliability, maintainability and risk analysis aiming at their application as tools for power plant performance improvement, including: · selection of critical equipment and components, · definition of maintenance plans, mainly for auxiliary systems, and · execution of decision analysis based on risk concepts. The comprehensive presentation of each analysis allows future application of the methodology making Thermal Power Plant Performance Analysis a key resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students in mechanical and nuclear engineering.

This book presents reliability-based tools used to define performance of complex systems and introduces the basic concepts of reliability, maintainability and risk analysis aiming at their application as tools for power plant performance improvement.

Thermal power plants are one of the most important process industries for engineering professionals. Over the past decades, the power sector is facing a number of critical issues; however, the most fundamental challenge is meeting the growing power demand in sustainable and efficient ways. Practicing power plant engineers not only look after operation and maintenance of the plant, but, also look after range of activities including research and development, starting from power generation to environmental aspects of power plants. The book Thermal Power Plants - Advanced Applications introduces analysis of plant performance, energy efficiency, combustion, heat transfer, renewable power generation, catalytic reduction of dissolved oxygen and environmental aspects of combustion residues. This book addresses issues related to both coal fired and steam power plants. The book is suitable for both undergraduate and research higher degree students, and of course for practicing power plant engineers.

This book illustrates operation and maintenance practices/guidelines for economic generation and managing health of a thermal power generator beyond its regulatory life. The book provides knowledge for professionals managing power station operations, through its unique approach to chemical analysis of water, steam, oil etc. to identify malfunctioning/defects in equipment/systems much before the physical manifestation of the problem. The book also contains a detailed procedure for conducting performance evaluation tests on different equipment, and for analyzing test results for predicting maintenance requirements, which has lent a new dimension to power systems operation and maintenance practices. A number of real life case studies also enrich the book. This book will prove particularly useful to power systems operations professionals in the developing economies, and also to researchers and students involved in studying power systems operations and control.

Covers the aspects of power plant design, operation, and maintenance. This title discusses cycle optimization and reliability, technical details on sizing, plant layout, fuel selection, types of drives, and performance characteristics of the major components in a cogeneration or combined cycle power plant.

The availability of fossil fuels required for power plants is reducing and their costs increasing rapidly. This gives rise to increase in the cost of generation of electricity. But electricity regulators have to control the price of electricity so that consumers are not stressed with high costs. In addition, environmental considerations are forcing power plants to reduce CO2 emissions. Under these circumstances, power plants are constantly under pressure to improve the efficiency of operating plants, and to reduce fuel consumption. In order to progress in this direction, it is important that power plants regularly audit their energy use in terms of the operating plant heat rate and auxiliary power consumption. Energy Audit of Thermal Power, Combined Cycle, and Cogeneration Plants attempts to refresh the fundamentals of the science and engineering of thermal power plants, and establishes its link with the real power plant performance data through case studies, and further developing techno-economics of the energy efficiency improvement measures. This book will rekindle interest in energy audits and analysis of the data for designing and implementation of energy conservation measures on a continuous basis.