Power Plants
Power Plants
Power Plants
Thus, conventional energy sources are provided by nature but are present only in restricted
quantities. Although, the non-conventional sources are present in unlimited amounts and
provided by nature.
Convection energy sources are naturally present and have been in use for years. The use of
conventional sources is done for heating, lighting, cooking, running machinery, and provision of
electricity. The examples for which include firewood, fossil fuels, and others. In addition,
firewood has been extensively used for cooking purposes in remote regions of India.
Control Gate:
There are having multiple control gates in a single hydro power plant. The work of control gate
is to regulate the flow of water. When the control gate is fully opened the speed of water flowing
is maximum.
Penstock:
The penstock is also called Pipe. The water stored at the dam or head pond is being released by
the control gate, the water starts moving to the turbine. The Head pond is having high heights
and the Turbine is situated below.
So the speed of water gets increased because of gravitational force. The material of the penstock
is hard steel being used.
Valve and Nozzle:
The valve work is similar to the control gate and Nozzle work is striking water in a specific
direction [Pressure is high] that is a turbine blade.
Surge tank:
Surge tank is an additional and essential component which is used to accumulate the water which
is in pipe when we want to close the turbine working. Or you can say it is used for avoiding the
pipe burst.
Turbine:
Turbine is a device which is used for generation of electricity. Turbine work is, the fluid having
kinetic energy is being converted into rotational energy.
The high kinetic energy water comes through the penstock to the nozzle and strikes the turbine
blades. The turbine blades start rotating. So the rotational energy can also be called mechanical
energy.
Draft Tube:
Drat tube is mechanical component which is used for enlarging the area of pipe for sending
maximum fluid to the other side.
Tail Race:
Tailrace carries water away from the plant. Hence the water is sent to the river.
Transmission Line:
The transmission line carries power from the power unit or transformer and transfers or supplies
from one source to another. It is made up of conductor.
Generator:
When the turbine buckets starts rotating, the turbine shafts also rotating. the motors are attached
to the turbine shafts which is also rotating and generator is attached to them which generates
electricity.
Transformer:
The transformer is attached to the generator. The electricity genearted is now controlled by the
transformr. The work of transformer is to set up or set down the voltage.
Power House:
The name power house means there is a house in which the power is being stored ]and released
to the transformer and so on.
Initially, the valve is closed. But when the water reaches up to the max level that can create high
pressure then we on the valves. The water with high pressure starts flowing and strikes to the
turbine blades through the nozzle.
The turbine blades start rotating. So till now, we observed the water which is having PE is now
converting into KE.
In the turbine blade, an electric motor is attached to the turbine shafts. So rotation of turbine
blades also rotates the turbine shafts, which also rotates the electric motor. Hence Kinematic
energy into mechanical energy and then further it is converted into electric energy.
The energy generated is sent to the powerhouse, Transformer, and Transmission line.
The water which is rotating the turbine blades is now sent to the river via a tailrace.
The hydropower plant is constructed to store the water in a large amount. When the water
reaches up to the max level then it is being released which also causes the flood in some area
(due to sudden release of water).
Heavy elements such as Uranium (U 235) or Thorium (Th232) are subjected to nuclear fission
reaction in a nuclear reactor. Due to fission, a large amount of heat energy is produced which is
transferred to the reactor coolant. The coolant may be water, gas or a liquid metal. The heated
coolant is made to flow through a heat exchanger where water is converted into high-temperature
steam. The generated steam is then allowed to drive a steam turbine. The steam, after doing its
work, is converted back into the water and recycled to the heat exchanger. The steam turbine is
coupled to an alternator which generates electricity. The generated electrical voltage is then
stepped up using a transformer for the purpose of long distance transmission.
The image below shows basic components and layout of a nuclear power station.
Basic Components Of A Nuclear Power Plant
Nuclear Reactor
A nuclear reactor is a special apparatus used to perform nuclear fission. Since the nuclear fission
is radioactive, the reactor is covered by a protective shield. Splitting up of nuclei of heavy atoms
is called as nuclear fission, during which huge amount of energy is released. Nuclear fission is
done by bombarding slow moving neutrons on the nuclei of heavy element. As the nuclei break
up, it releases energy as well as more neutrons which further cause fission of neighboring atoms.
Hence, it is a chain reaction and it must be controlled, otherwise it may result in explosion. A
nuclear reactor consists of fuel rods, control rods and moderator. A fuel rod contains small round
fuel pallets (uranium pallets). Control rods are of cadmium which absorb neutrons. They are
inserted into reactor and can be moved in or out to control the reaction. The moderator can be
graphite rods or the coolant itself. Moderator slows down the neutrons before they bombard on
the fuel rods.
Two types of nuclear reactors that are widely used -
1. PressurisedWaterReactor(PWR) -
This type of reactor uses regular water as coolant. The coolant (water) is kept at very high
pressure so that it does not boil. The heated water is transferred through heat exchanger
where water from secondary coolant loop is converted into steam. Thus the secondary loop
is completely free from radioactive stuff. In a PWR, the coolant water itself acts as a
moderator. Due to these advantages, pressurised water reactors are most commonly used.
2. BoilingWaterReactor(BWR) -
In this type of reactor only one coolant loop is present. The water is allowed to boil in the
reactor. The steam is generated as it heads out of the reactor and then flows through the
steam turbine. One major disadvantage of a BWR is that, the coolant water comes in direct
contact with fuel rods as well as the turbine. So, there is a possibility that radioactive
material could be placed on the turbine.
Heat Exchanger
In the heat exchanger, the primary coolant transfers heat to the secondary coolant (water). Thus
water from the secondary loop is converted into steam. The primary system and secondary
system are closed loop, and they are never allowed to mix up with each other. Thus, heat
exchanger helps in keeping secondary system free from radioactive stuff. Heat exchanger is
absent in boiling water reactors.
Steam Turbine
Generated steam is passed through a steam turbine, which runs due to pressure of the steam. As
the steam is passed through the turbine blades, the pressure of steam gradually decreases and it
expands in volume. The steam turbine is coupled to an alternator through a rotating shaft.
Alternator
The steam turbine rotates the shaft of an alternator thus generating electrical energy. Electrical
output of the alternator is the delivered to a step up transformer to transfer it over distances.
Condenser
The steam coming out of the turbine, after it has done its work, is then converted back into water
in a condenser. The steam is cooled by passing it through a third cold water loop.
Solar Power Plant
What is Solar Power Plant?
The solar power plant is also known as the Photovoltaic (PV) power plant. It is a large-scale PV
plant designed to produce bulk electrical power from solar radiation. The solar power plant uses
solar energy to produce electrical power. Therefore, it is a conventional power plant.
Solar energy can be used directly to produce electrical energy using solar PV panels. Or there is
another way to produce electrical energy that is concentrated solar energy. In this type of plant,
the radiation energy of solar first converted into heat (thermal energy) and this heat is used to
drive a conventional generator. This method is difficult and not efficient to produce electrical
power on a large scale.
Hence, to produce electrical power on a large scale, solar PV panels are used. In this article, we
will explain details about solar PV plants and PV panels. Below is the layout plan of
photovoltaic power plant.
Where,
I0 = Saturation current
V = Junction voltage
e = electron charge = 1.602×10-19 J/V
k = Boltzmann’s constant = 1.381×10-23 J/K
T = Temperature (K)
Solar Cell Efficiency
The solar cells are a device that used to convert the photon energy into electrical energy. The
efficiency of solar cells equates as below;
Quantum Efficiency QE,
Theoretically, solar cells are used to operate at maximum efficiency. The main factors affecting
the efficiency of solar cells are listed below.
Temperature
Sun Intensity
Solar Shading
Reflection
Temperature
Due to the intrinsic characteristic of the semiconductor material, the efficiency of solar cells is
highly impacted by temperature. The solar cells cannot operate efficiently at a higher
temperature. And the efficiency of solar cells is high with lower temperatures.
Sun Intensity
The sun’s intensity varies throughout the day. In the afternoon, the sun intensity is maximum.
During this time, the efficiency of solar cells is maximum. During evening and morning time, the
sun intensity is not at peak level. Hence, during this time, the efficiency is lower compared to
around afternoon time.
Solar Shading
The efficiency of solar cells is highly dependent on solar sheading. During a cloudy atmosphere,
the solar cells are not capable to generate more energy. During the rainy season, the efficiency of
solar cells decreases due to shading.
Reflection
The solar cell collects photon energy. But the efficiency of cells will decrease if the cells reflect
light away from the surface. Untreated silicon surface reflects light up to 30% of incident light.
To avoid this situation, an anti-reflection coating is used on the surface of the solar cells. Due to
this coating, the solar cells appear dark blue or black.
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WIND TURBINE
The wind is the natural circulation of air across the land or sea. The wind is caused by
uneven heating and cooling of the earth’s surface and by the earth’s rotation. Land and areas
absorb and release a different amount of heat received from the sun
When the wind strikes the rotor blades, blades start rotating. The turbine rotor is connected to a
high-speed gearbox. Gearbox transforms the rotor rotation from low speed to high speed. The
high-speed shaft from the gearbox is coupled with the rotor of the generator and hence the
electrical generator runs at a higher speed. An exciter is needed to give the required excitation to
the magnetic coil of the generator field system so that it can generate the required electricity. The
generated voltage at output terminals of the alternator is proportional to both the speed and field
flux of the alternator. The speed is governed by wind power which is out of control. Hence to
maintain uniformity of the output power from the alternator, excitation must be controlled
according to the availability of natural wind power. The exciter current is controlled by a turbine
controller which senses the wind speed. Then output voltage of electrical generator(alternator) is
given to a rectifier where the alternator output gets rectified to DC. Then this rectified DC output
is given to line converter unit to convert it into stabilized AC output which is ultimately fed to
either electrical transmission network or transmission grid with the help of step up transformer.
An extra units is used to give the power to internal auxiliaries of wind turbine (like motor,
battery etc.), this is called Internal Supply Unit.
There are other two control mechanisms attached to a modern big wind turbine.
Controlling the orientation of the turbine blade.
The orientation of turbine blades is governed from the base hub of the blades. The blades are
attached to the central hub with the help of a rotating arrangement through gears and small
electric motor or hydraulic rotary system. The system can be electrically or mechanically
controlled depending on its design. The blades are swiveled depending upon the speed of the
wind. The technique is called pitch control. It provides the best possible orientation of the turbine
blades along the direction of the wind to obtain optimized wind power.
The orientation of the nacelle or the entire body of the turbine can follow the direction of
changing wind direction to maximize mechanical energy harvesting from the wind. The direction
of the wind along with its speed is sensed by an anemometer (automatic speed measuring
devices) with wind vanes attached to the back top of the nacelle. The signal is fed back to an
electronic microprocessor-based controlling system which governs the yaw motor which rotates
the entire nacelle with gearing arrangement to face the air turbine along the direction of the wind.
Applications of Wind Power
Advantages