Selection of the cooling system configuration for an ultra-critical coal-fired power plant

• We discuss the application of the serial condenser in coal-fired power plant.
• The proper selection of cooling system parameters is investigated.
• The impact of turbine exhaust loss for thermal cycle efficiency is considered.
• The economic efficiency of different cooling system configurations is performed.

The appropriate selection of the condenser pressure, apart from raising the live steam parameters, is a factor which could have a decisive impact on the improvement in the efficiency of the thermal cycle. The pressure value depends both on the parameters and configuration of the cooling system. The condenser cooling system configuration is particularly important in the case of newly designed high-capacity ultra-supercritical power plants. The presented study comprises a comparison of two variants of a cooling system for a 900 MW ultra-supercritical power unit. The serial and parallel configurations of the condenser are considered. A thermodynamic analysis which takes account of the exhaust loss of the LP turbine is performed. Additionally, an economic analysis based on the NPV method is conducted for all investigated cases.