Abstracts - VGB PowerTech Journal 8/2016
Editorial: Appropriate and reliable framework for CHP plants urgently needed
Dr. Christian Behnke
This issue of VGB PowerTech covers industrial power stations and CHP plants, steam generators and construction technology for power plants. By way of introduction to these topics I would like to describe my impressions from the VGB Technical Group “Industrial and Cogeneration Stations, CHPs”, which deals with similar issues. Through this Group, the VGB offers plant operators a platform where they can meet twice a year to discuss and exchange experiences and solutions. Members of the Group support each other, which benefits their clients by leading to greater security of supply and lower running costs. [more...]
Integration of thermal energy storage concepts as flexibility options in industrial energy systems
René Hofmann Markus Haider, Sabrina Dusek, Martin Koller and Heimo Walter
The steadily increasing, but volatile part of the electrical energy generated from wind parks and photovoltaic systems causes in addition to the challenges related to bottlenecks in the electricity grid also high demands on the short-time electricity market respectively the reserve power which has to be used to timely compensate the volatility of the production. This surplus on electrical energy results in new economic opportunities for loads and consumers by transformation into other forms of energy, so-called power-to-heat-concepts, providing a negative power reserve, and thus the participation in the balancing energy market is made possible. The flexible industrial power plant of the future enables an optimal response to the fluctuating energy market by use of thermal energy storages and heat pump technologies.
Integration of storage facilities into the energy system: Storage requirements, market development, effects on the industry and cogeneration plants
Jens Gatena
The implementation of demands resulting from the energy revolution leads to heavy modifications in the power generation in Germany. Because of this fluctuating feed-in of electricity from renewable energies, flexibility of the energy systems and an integration of storage facilities are essential. By analysing the expert interviews about the future development, the suitability of technologies for different application areas in the energy system is presented. For this the trend:research studies “Storage facilities: Chances and opportunities for public utilities, producers and consumers” (2013), “Battery Storage” (2016) and other projects and analyses are used.
Contribution of coal to the transformation of the German electricity supply
George Milojcic
The use of coal, hard coal and lignite, is compatible with the targets of the German “Energiewende”. This fact is often ignored. Due to the uncertain geopolitical situation, the domestic lignite is an important element for a reliable energy supply of Germany. In addition to the known factors secure availability, competitiveness and local economic importance, flexibility has become a characteristics of lignite. The change of the German energy supply is only possible with domestic lignite. This article points out the importance of lignite for this process.
Air preheater upkeep after shaft break at a steam generator in power station Boxberg
Klaus Flamm and Sven Köhler
The upkeep of the Vattenfall Europe Generation AG power plants is implemented centrally by the power station maintenance management, and extends over the whole power station. On 26 December 14, as a result of the sudden standstill of a flue gas preheater (air preheater), the fault-dependent failure of a steam generator on a 500 MW block occurred in the power station Boxberg. Findings indicated that the air preheater shaft (shaft diameter 420 mm/material C25) had broken at the drive-end in the area of the clamping sleeve of the roller bearings. The successful realisation of the repair could be dealt with only jointly by competent Vattenfall staff personnel and a competent service partner KSC-Anlagenservice, Cottbus.
Optimisation of lifetime and efficiency by optimising the de-superheater
Claas Hohmann, Kai Michels uand Christian Fielenbach
In order to increase the flexibility of the lignite fired power plants of RWE Power dedicated process analyses are carried out to identify technical and operational optimization potentials and to secure new modes of operation. With regard to a controlled lifetime consumption and optimal efficiency the desuperheaters have a significant influence. In the analysis of the desuperheater control two currently used methods for control and setpoint control of the desuperheater in the high pressure area were examined. The University of Bremen and RWE Power has developed a new method for desuperheater control within a joint project. As a result of this new mode of operation of the desuperheaters, higher average live steam temperatures at part load and minimum load operation and during load changes higher overall gradients with reduced lifetime consumption can be achieved.
Flexibility of industrial CHP plants – Analysis of future operation regimes
Steffen Kahlert, Hartmut Spliethoff, Christian Behnke, Rudolf Heß, Norbert Hönings and Christian Busch
The increase in renewable electricity production poses high requirements on the flexibility of the thermal power plant fleet. Industrial CHP plants use their flexibility for a demand-driven supply of heat for an industrial site. A dynamic process simulation allows analyzing the load change capability of the power plant Plattling. Today, the power plant already provides secondary control reserve and a large share of the electrical load can be modified flexibly while assuring a reliable heat supply.
On-load tap changer diagnostics with acoustic emission method
Pawel Berger
One of the most important elements of electrical grids are power transformers. They are installed in large numbers across all the branches of power distribution system with primary task to provide constant power transfer capabilities. Some of them are equipped with devices called on-load tap changers (OLTC), which allows to modify transformer turn ratio without a need to interrupt the current flow. This feature greatly expands the grid voltage regulation capabilities. Presented paper provides an insight on modern OLTC diagnostic methods, their capabilities and limitations, with special attention paid to acoustic emission (AE) method.
Cavitation-free, intrinsically safe pumping of condensates – Special centrifugal pumps as an efficient solution for challenging tasks in power plant engineering systems
Sadko Meusel and Annette van Dorp
Pumping condensates is a challenging task. In power plant engineering it mostly involves water at boiling point. One difficulty in the process is pumping the boiling medium without cavitation. V-AN type special centrifugal pumps offer an alternative approach. The space at the pump’s impeller inlet is structurally connected with the gas space in the reservoir. This removes the pump’s suction capability.
Experiences with the treatment of the water/steam cycle of the Adamów power plant with film forming amines
Elzbieta Sylwestrzak, Witold Moszczynski, Wolfgang Hater, Tadeusz Dembowski and André der Bache
Conditioning the water/steam cycles in the ZE Pak, Adamów, Poland lignite-fired power plant has been carried out with a conditioning agent based on film forming amines for the last nineteen years. The power plant in central Poland supplies electricity to the national grid as well as steam to nearby industry. In 2013 the water/steam cycle chemistry in block 3 of the power plant was changed to a different film forming amine technology mainly due to tube failures in the high pressure feed water preheater section. Now the water and steam parameters usually correspond to the specifications in the VGB-Standard-010 guideline.
Reducing disturbing light emissions with lighting on demand solutions
Alexander Gerdes
The night marking in terms of red beacon lights disturbs people and the environment. This means lower local acceptance for further wind farm extensions. Lighting on demand systems allow the lights to be switched off as long as no aircraft approached the relevant area. For this one or several sensors for aircraft detection have to be installed and connected with one or several wind farms and it’s active beacon systems. Currently there are two recognized radar based systems with different approaches in the practical implementation.
New generation of VGB Standards in civil engineering – An overview
Thomas Eck
Besides of interdisciplinary, technically oriented experience exchange on current topics VGB PowerTech e.V. also deals with the development and publication of VGB Standards concerning civil engineering. Despite of decreasing building activities in the field of power plants on European and particularly national level there is still need in the definition of power plant specific conditions for the aspects of civil engineering, also for the international application. The focus is more and more altering from new construction, retrofit and refurbishment of power plants to the field of deconstruction, maintenance and life cycle management, particularly considering alterable remaining useful life and generally increasing economical pressure. Besides thermal power plants more and more renewables are affected by those contents.
BIM (Building Information Modeling) – Digitalisation in the construction industry
Tobias Rahm, Felix Nagel and Joachim Meyer
Building Information Modeling (BIM) is a cooperative methodology to consistently store all relevant in-formation of a building in digital models. These models can contain any data generated throughout the whole life cycle of a structure. The BIM methodology is a process-oriented methodical framework to organize software deployment that aims for consistent information management and lossless reuse of data in different use cases. Thereby, the transparent communication between all involved parties is facilitated and an efficient and effective project implementation ensured.