SIEMENS says its efforts toward modernising older power plants have succeeded in boosting their efficiency while reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
According to Siemens, its engineers have enabled facility operators to get more power output from turbines, or to bring a power plant up to full capacity in less time, while using the same amount of fuel.
Siemens claims it has boosted the efficiency of E.ON’s Farge coal-fired power plant near Bremen, Germany, from 39 to 42% due to the modernisation drive.
Siemens says turbines can be made more efficient through the use of 3D computer simulations to optimise the turbine blades and steam flow patterns.
Another approach is to adjust the operation control technology. This allows the facilities to reach full capacity in less time and also to cool off faster, allowing quicker maintenance.
According to Siemens, its engineers have also modernized a combined cycle power plant in England. The staff studied all the parameters of the 400-megawatt facility, including pump flow rate, feedwater temperature, steam cation conductivity, and boiler temperature.
They then re-adjusted the parameters of the operation control system to reduce the time needed to reach full operating capacity, without replacing any components.
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