WEIGHTED FOULING MODEL FOR POWER PLANT CONDENSER MONITORING

Operating a power station is much more than understanding the functional relationship between its many parts. In today's market driven economy it requires a multi-disciplined approach to balance the technical, economic, environmental and often times political forces, that influence the decision making process. This paper presents a method for quantifying the economic impact of condenser maintenance based on plant thermodynamics, condenser modelling and market forces in the form of power purchase agreements.An operating cost function is formulated which is able to estimate operating costs based on current plant data and operating parameters from the power purchase contracts. The results highlight the financial implications of any future maintenance decisions. Due to the complex, multi-modal and discontinuous nature of the cost function, conventional optimisation techniques struggle with this scheduling problem. However, using genetic algorithms, it is possible to search and identify a range of feasible least cost maintenance schedules. As a result, key schedules and their associated costs are quickly highlighted, allowing the user to make a more informed decision regarding future maintenance.