Numerical Simulation and Experimental Validation of Integrated Solar Combined Power Plant

Combined cycle power plant has the highest efficiency due to recovery heat efficient use. Utilizing solar heating of parabolic troughs can improve the overall efficiency of such plants. Different plants of such technology were successfully installed around the world and one of these plants is the Kurymat plant, which was recently installed south Cairo, Egypt. In the plant the exit flue gases from a gas turbine is used to produce superheated steam into a steam turbine without any supplementary firing. The gas- turbine always works in full load where the steam cycle power is maximized during the day when the solar field performance is maximized. Parabolic trough solar collectors are used to generate the steam during the day time, where the steam mass flow rate is controlled to improve the power produced. A detailed performance model of the integrated combined cycle of Kuraymat plant is created in TRNSYS simulation environment. A numerical simulation of the plant was established and its predicted performance is compared with the measured data of the Kuraymat plant. The numerical results are in close agreement with the measured ones. Annual performance of the validated simulated plant is presented under weather data of Makkah, 21.29 °N. The power of gas-turbine is improved to 72 MW along the year while the steam-turbine power is increased to about 52 MW that is about 44% of total power. The solar fraction of the plant was estimated at about 25%. The model demonstrates the capability to perform detailed analysis and is very useful for evaluating proposed systems.