Applied Energy 112 (2013) 710718

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Performance evaluation of solar aided feedwater heating of coal-red

power generation (SAFHCPG) system under different operating
conditions
Hou Hong-juan a, Yu Zhen-yue a,b, Yang Yong-ping a,, Chen Si c, Luo Na a, Wu Junjie a
a
b
c

National Thermal Power Engineering & Technology Research Center, North China Electric Power University, Changping District, Beijing 102206, China
Zhejiang Electric Power Design Institute, Xihu District, Hangzhou 310012, China
University of Kentucky, Power and Energy Institute of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, United States

h i g h l i g h t s
 The performance of a SAFHCPG system at design point is analyzed.
 The solar radiation intensity and the electrical load demand on the grid side are considered in the annual performance analysis.
 The optimum aperture area of the solar eld has been discussed based on the annual performance.

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 25 September 2012
Received in revised form 18 April 2013
Accepted 23 May 2013
Available online 31 July 2013
Keywords:
Solar aided power generation
Feedwater heating
Annual performance

a b s t r a c t
Integrating solar energy with a coal-red power plant or other power systems has been proved to be an
efcient way to utilize solar energy for power generation. Solar aided feedwater heating of a coal-red
power generation (SAFHCPG) system, which is mainly discussed in this paper, is chosen as an option
for its easy operation and exible control nature.
The performance of a SAFHCPG system at design point is analyzed under various load conditions in the
paper. As the results show in Table 4, the lower load of coal-red unit that solar aid, the lower solar-toelectric efciency will be. For a SAFHCPG system, its performance is inuenced by the solar radiation
intensity and the electrical load demand on the grid side. The correlation between the annual performance of a SAFHCPG plant and the two key factors is discussed and then the optimal aperture area of
solar eld is derived. The result shows that, for the case studied the optimal aperture area of solar eld
and the lowest LEC (Levelized Electricity Costs) are: 115395 m2 and 0.472 /kW h in a typical year;
138945 m2 and 1.010 /kW h in an extremely low radiation year; 91845 m2 and 0.426 /kW h in an
extremely high radiation year respectively.
2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

1. Introduction
As a clean, free and non-depleting source, the prospect of solar
thermal power is promising and solar energy has been attracting
more and more attention. Since it has relatively low intensity,
unstability and periodicity, generally speaking, solar power utilization is costly [1]. Therefore, the conventional coal or gas-red
power plants are still the dominant choices to generate base load
electricity around the world for decades to come. However, the
pollution, greenhouse gas emission and fossil fuel resource reduction are bringing about much critique to the conventional power
plants [2,3]. Combining the available solar energy conversion technology with conventional fossil-fueled power plants could reduce
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 13699182529.
E-mail address: yypncepu@163.com (Y. Yong-ping).
0306-2619/$ - see front matter 2013 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2013.05.062

fuel costs and simultaneously help utilities that are struggling to

meet their CO2 emissions reduction targets. Solar energy has been
proposed with various utilizations in conventional steam power
plants such as feedwater heating, superheating/reheating of steam
and air preheating. In these combined approaches, SAFHCPG
system with its superior features including high solar to power
efciency, duel operation modes and economics has been
intensively studied and discussed recently [38]. You and Hu [3]
presented the solar aided coal-red power generation system
and calculated the thermodynamic benets of a three-stage regenerative Rankine hybrid system. Eric Hu et al. [4] analyzed the
advantages of solar aided power generation concept in aspects of
its energy and exergy, based on hypothetical cases. But in the analysis of literature [3,4], the state of the working uid (water and/or
steam) at every point of the system is assumed to be unchanged
with or without solar-aided feedwater heating, only the ow rate

H. Hong-juan et al. / Applied Energy 112 (2013) 710718

711

Nomenclatures
Ac
aperture area of solar eld (m2)
AF
annuity factor ()
b
standard coal consumption rate (g/kW h)
b1,b2, b3,c1,c2 empirical constants ()
C
other receipts ()
CC
increased total capital cost since solar energy is introduced ()
Eannual
annual net solar electricity generation (kW h)
FUEL
fuel costs ()
hdd
enthalpy of drain water from higher-pressure heaters
(kJ/kg)
hd,i
enthalpy of drain water for heater i (kJ/kg)
hds
enthalpy of extraction steam for deareator (kJ/kg)
hi,i
enthalpy of extraction steam for heater i (kJ/kg)
hin,w
inlet enthalpy of feedwater for deareator (kJ/kg)
hms
enthalpy of main steam (kJ/kg)
hmw
feedwater enthalpy at inlet boiler (kJ/kg)
how
outlet enthalpy of feedwater for deareator (kJ/kg)
hri
inlet enthalpy of reheated steam (kg/h)
hro
outlet enthalpy of reheated steam (kg/h)
hwi,i
inlet enthalpy of feedwater for heater i (kJ/kg)
hwo,i
outlet enthalpy of feedwater for heater i (kJ/kg)
Ib,n
DNI (W/m2)
k
incidence angle modier ()
L
spacing distance between adjacent collector rows (m)
LEC
Levelized Electricity Costs (/kW h)
msc
coal consumption converted to the standard coal (kg)
_ coal
m
standard coal consumption rate (kg/h)
_ dd
mass ow rate of drain water from higher-pressure
m
heaters (kg/h)
_ de
mass ow rate of feedwater for deareator (kg/h)
m
_ d;i
m
mass ow rate of drain water for heater i (kg/h)
_ ds
mass ow rate of extraction steam for deareator (kg/h)
m
_ fw;i
mass ow rate of feedwater for heater i (kg/h)
m
_i
mass ow rate of extraction steam for heater i (kg/h)
m
_ ms
m
mass ow rate of main steam (kg/h)
_ rs
mass ow rate of reheated steam (kg/h)
m

changes. Yan et al. [5,6] discussed the performance of the solar

aided coal-red power generation system with different replacements and solar collector types under different operating conditions. However, the effect of DNI was not considered in his
analysis. Based on the THERMOFLEX software, Dimityr Popov [7]
analyzed and compared the three replacements with low pressure
heaters, high pressure heaters, high pressure heaters and economizer were replaced by solar eld respectively. It was concluded
that the last approach had better performance than the rst two.
Suresh et al. [8] proposed cases with the 4-E (namely energy, exergy, environment, and economic) analysis of solar thermal aided
coal-red power plants. The results indicated that it was an economical utilization of solar energy aiding coal-red power plants
with the substitution of turbine extraction steam to the feedwater
heaters. However, in the above-mentioned analyses and researches, basically the solar eld is considered as a black box
and the operating performance of solar aided coal-red power generation on design point is compared and discussed, while the impact of variation of DNI and electrical load are neglected. In this
paper, a SAFHCPG system with a parabolic trough solar eld is analyzed and discussed. In addition to the performance of the design
point, the annual performance of the system is also discussed with
the solar radiation intensity and the electrical load demand on the
grid side considered as two key factors. Furthermore, the optimum
aperture area of solar eld is also discussed in the study.

_ ti
m

mass ow rate of steam of the stage i in turbine of the

original coal-red power generation unit (kg/h)
_ 0ti
m
mass ow rate of steam of the stage i in turbine after the
solar energy introduced (kg/h)
O&M
annual operating and maintenance expenditure ()
pc
pressures of the exhaust steam (MPa)
pi and pi+1 pressures of the stage i and i + 1 in turbine of the original coal-red power generation unit (MPa)
p0i and p0i1 pressures of the stage i and i + 1 in turbine, after the
solar energy introduced (MPa)
Ps
solar power output (kW)
Pz
total output of the SAFHCPGS (kW)
q
interest rate ()
solar radiation absorbed by the receiver tubes (W)
Q_ abs
heat load of the boiler (kW)
Q_ b
qcoal
standard coal thermal value (kJ/kg)
thermal output of a parabolic trough solar eld (W)
Q_ col
Q_ collector collector heat losses (W)
direct normal irradiance (DNI) projected on the collecQ_ Ld
tor (W)
losses of solar eld (W)
Q_ loss
heat losses of piping (W)
Q_ pipe
ts
condensing temperature (C)
W
electrical energy output of the plant (kW h)
Wide
width of the collector aperture (m)
x
shadow factor ()
DT
difference between the average temperature of solar
eld and the ambient air temperature (C)
d
declination angle ()
g0
optical efciency ()
gb
boiler efciency ()
gref
efciency of reference coal-red power unit ()
gse
solar-to-electricity efciency ()
hf
incident angle of solar eld ()
hi
incidence angle ()
hz
solar zenith angle ()
x
hour angle ()

2. System description
Almost all combustion-based steam power plants are running
so-called regenerative Rankine cycle thermodynamically, in which
part of the steam is extracted from the turbine to pre-heat the boiler feedwater from about 40 C (from the condenser) to 300 C (to
the boiler) [9]. By doing so, the overall thermal efciency of the
plant increases, but the power per unit steam generates passing
through the boiler is reduced. In the SAFHCPG system, the extraction steam is partly or totally replaced by solar heat carried by heat
transfer uid to preheat the feedwater. Therefore, the saved extraction steam continues expanding in the turbine to generate power.
According to the necessary electrical load, the SAFHCPG system can
operate at a fuel-saving (fuel and emission reduction while keeping
the same generating capacity) or power boosting mode (additional
power generation with the same fuel consumption).
Fig. 1 illustrates the solar-aided concept, that is, the feedwater
is heated in the oilwater exchanger by thermal oil which carries
solar energy. In this paper, the constant solar eld outlet temperature operation mode is adopted. Therefore, the solar eld control
system needs to adjust the oil ow rate through the solar eld to
maintain a stable outlet temperature of the solar eld. Moreover,
the ow of extraction steam entering the feedwater heaters is
self-adjusted according to the water outlet temperature of feed
water heaters.

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H. Hong-juan et al. / Applied Energy 112 (2013) 710718

Reheat Steam
Boiler

mms ,hms
Main Steam

Extraction
Steam

Condenser

Extraction
Steam

Feedwater
Heater

Deaerator

Coal
mcoal,qcoal

Pump
DJ

Boiler

CY
Pump

mms,hmw

Feedwater
Heater

mrs,hri
Reheat Steam

Oil-Water
Exchanger

Feedwater
Fig. 2. Schematic of boiler.

Solar Field
Fig. 1. Diagram of SAFHCPG system.

k max 1  c1 

3. Simulation of the system SAFHCPG

As mentioned above, a SAFHCPG plant consists of a solar eld
and a conventional coal-red power system. As the introduction
of solar energy, the performance parameters of the original coalred units would change. Thus, the energy and economic benets
after integration need to be re-analyzed and re-discussed. The
main sub-models of the system are provided below.
3.1. Solar eld

!
hi
h2
 c2  i ; 0
cos hi
cos hi

where c1 and c2 are two empirical constants.1 The heat losses of the
solar eld include two parts: the collector heat losses and piping system heat losses. The collector heat losses can be calculated by the
following empirical formula [12].

Q_ collector b1  k  Q_ Ld b2 b3  DTDT  Ac

Q_ pipe Ac 0:01693DT  0:0001683DT2 6:78  107 DT3 

Q_ col Q_ abs  Q_ loss

Q_ col Q_ abs  Q_ collector Q_ pipe

The direct normal irradiance (DNI) projected on the collector area

can be expressed by:

Q_ Ld xIb;n cos hi Ac

where Ib,n is the DNI (W/m2); hi is the incidence angle (); Ac is aperture area of solar eld (m2); x is the shadow factor, which is derived
from the geometry of the solar zenith angle, the incidence angle,
and the layout of the collectors in a eld [10]:

x min

L cos hf
;1
Wide cos hi

cos hi

q
2
cos2 hz cos2 d sin x

3.2. Boiler
Boiler is the main equipment in a coal-red power plant, combusting fuel to heat water or steam. In the analysis, the boiler is
considered as a black box, showed in Fig. 2, with relevant input
and output parameters of temperature, enthalpy, mass ow rate
and pressure. The standard coal consumption rate can be calculated by the energy balance principle:

_ coal
m

_ ms hms  hmw m
_ rs hro  hri
m
qcoal gb

10

_ coal is the standard coal consumption rate (kg/h); m

_ ms and
where m
hms are mass ow rate and enthalpy of main steam (kg/h and
_ rs is the mass ow
kJ/kg); hmw is inlet enthalpy of boiler (kJ/kg); m
rate of reheated steam (kg/h); hro and hri are outlet and inlet enthalpy of reheated steam; qcoal is standard coal thermal value (kJ/kg);
gb is the efciency of boiler.
3.3. Turbine

where hz, d and x are zenith, declination and hour angle respectively ().
Solar radiation absorbed by the receiver tubes can be expressed
as follows:

Q_ abs Q_ Ld  k  g0

Thus, the thermal output of a parabolic trough solar eld becomes:

where L is the spacing distance between adjacent collector rows

(m); hf is the incident angle of solar eld (); Wide is the width of
the collector aperture (m).
In the analysis, the NS collector axis orientation is selected.
This is a common orientation selected in parabolic trough plants
because the annual integrated energy is greater than that of
EW orientation. Thus, the incidence angle can be described by
[11]:

The empirical constants b1, b2, b3 have been determined during collector tests of literature [12],2 DT is the difference between the average solar eld temperature and the ambient air temperature (C).The
heat losses of piping are counted by the following empirical equation
[13]:

The thermal output of a parabolic trough solar eld depends on

the absorbed solar radiation incident on the collector reduced by
the losses of the solar eld.

where g0 is the optical efciency; k is the incidence angle modier.

In a SAFHCPG plant, the introduction of solar energy inevitably

leads to the changes of the ow path and thermal parameters in
the turbine.
To simplify the calculations of variable operating conditions in
1
Dudley et al. [12] determined the parameters c1 = 0.000884/1, c2 = 0.00005369/
(1)2.
2
The parameter b1 = 0.00007276, b2 = 0.00496 Wm2 K1, b3 = 0.000691 Wm2
K2 are given by Dudley et al. [12].

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H. Hong-juan et al. / Applied Energy 112 (2013) 710718

turbine, the improved Flugel formula [14] is selected. The Flugel

formula indicates the relationship between the before-after pressure and ow of stage group when the condition is changed
Assuming that the exhaust pressure and temperature remain constant, according to the exhaust ports, the turbine is divided into 8
stages. In the iterative calculations the reverse method is used.
Flugel formula:

_ 0ti
m

_ ti
m

s
 0 2
02
02
_ ti
p02
p02
m
i  pi1
i  pi1
)

_ ti
m
p2i  p2i1
p2i  p2i1

mi , hi,i

m fw,i , h wo,i

Feedwater
heater

md,i-1, hd,i-1

mfw,i , h wi,i

mi+md,i-1, hd,i

11
Fig. 4. Schematic of feedwater heater.

_ 0ti is the mass ow rate of steam of the stage i in turbine

where m
_ ti is the mass ow rate
after the solar energy introduced (kg/h); m
of steam of the stage i in turbine of the original coal-red power
generation unit (kg/h); p0i and p0i1 are the pressures of the stage i
and i + 1 in turbine, after the solar energy introduced (MPa); pi
and pi+1 are the pressures of the stage i and i + 1 in turbine of the
original coal-red power generation unit (MPa).

mds , hds
mde , hin,w

mdd , hdd

deareator

3.4. Condenser
mdd+mde+m ds , how

In the condenser a vacuum state is established and maintained;

the exhaust steam is condensed to water for re-use in the boiler. To
simplify calculations, constant condensing temperature ts is assumed as a constant in the condenser model. Therefore, the condensing pressure remains constant as well. The schematic of
condenser is showed in Fig. 3.

t s const

12

pc f t const

13

Fig. 5. Schematic of deaerator.

_ de is the mass ow rate of feedwater for deareator (kg/h);

where m
how and hin,w are outlet and inlet enthalpy of feedwater (kJ/kg);
_ ds and hds are the mass ow rate and enthalpy of extraction steam
m
_ dd and hdd are the mass ow rate and enthalpy of drain
(kg/h); m
water from higher-pressure heaters (kg/h and kJ/kg).
3.7. System evaluation model

3.5. Feedwater heaters

Feedwater heaters are typical close heaters showed in Fig. 4.
Extraction steam elevates the temperature of feedwater to the boiler. Thus, thermal efciency of the plant improves. The model
adopted for the feedwater heater in the paper is described as
below:

_ fw;i hwo;i  hwi;i m

_ i hi;i  hd;i m
_ d;i1 hd;i1  hd;i
m

14

_ fw;i is the mass ow rate of feedwater for heater i (kg/h);

where m
hwo,i and hwi,i are the outlet and inlet enthalpy of feedwater for hea_ i and m
_ d;i are the mass ow rate of extraction steam
ter i (kJ/kg); m
and drain water for heater i (kg/h); hi,i and hd,i are the enthalpy of
extraction steam and drain water for heater i (kJ/kg).
3.6. Deaerator
The deareator is a typical open heater showed in Fig. 5. This
helps purge oxygen from the feedwater, controlling corrosion.
The heat balance equation is:

_ de ho:w  hin;w m
_ ds hds  how m
_ dd hdd  how
m

15

To evaluate the benets or the efciency of the solar heat utilization in SAFHCPG, the solar-to-electricity efciency (gse) is dened as:

gse

1000Ps 1000P z  Q_ b  gref

Q_ Ld
Q_ Ld

where Ps is solar power output (kW); Pz is total output of the

SAFHCPG (kW); Q_ b is the heat load of the boiler (kW); gref is the
efciency of reference coal-red power unit.
Standard coal consumption rate is the boiler coal consumption
for per kW h electricity generated (g/kW h), dened as:

1000msc
W

Cooling water

ts

Fig. 3. Schematic of condenser.

17

where msc is the coal consumption converted to the standard coal

(29,307 kJ/kg), in kg; W is electrical energy output of the plant
(kW h).
Besides, in order to show the economical effect of the new integrated system, the Levelized Electricity Costs (LECs) is calculated as
follows:

LEC

Pc =const

16

CC  AF O&M FUEL  C
Eannual

18

where CC is the increased total capital cost since solar energy is

introduced into power system. In the analysis the investment cost
for solar eld is 2000 /m2, which is just the cost of solar collectors
and installation, excluding the costs of land, oil water exchanger
and the retrotting of control system; AF is annuity factor:
D
AF q qq1
D 1 , in which q is the interest rate = 6%, D is the lifetime of
power station = 25; O & M, the annual operating and maintenance
expenditure including taxes and insurance ,in this case, we take
the value as 50 /m2; FUEL, fuel costs; Eannual, annual net solar electricity generation in kW h; C, other receipts, i.e., prots from carbon

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H. Hong-juan et al. / Applied Energy 112 (2013) 710718

Fig. 6. Scheme of a 300 MW coal-red power unit.

scheme of the coal-red power unit and its key parameters are
shown in Fig. 6 and Tables 1 and 2, respectively. In Fig. 6, the feedwater heaters are numbered in a pressure-descending order, which
is the case in current power plants.

Table 1
Main parameters of unit.
item

Unit

100% Load

75% Load

50% Load

Power
Steam pressure
Steam temperature
Mass ow rate of steam
Reheating temperature
Feedwater temperature
Exhausted steam pressure
Exhausted steam enthalpy

MW
MPa
C
kg/h
C
C
kPa
kJ/kg

307.75
16.67
538
915 625
538
274.7
5.20
2348.5

230.67
14.06
538
666 642
538
256.0
5.20
2383.9

154.30
9.70
532.5
454 211
512.9
234.8
5.20
2419.3

4.1. Replacement selection

Extensive literatures indicate that, in a SAFHCPG system, the
higher grade extraction steam replaced by solar energy, the better
the thermal performance would be obtained [38,15]. Therefore, in
the following we will only discuss the extraction steam of high
pressure heaters No. 13 replaced by solar heat.

emission trading; which is not considered in the calculation of this

paper (The SAFHCPG system can make the emission of greenhouse
gases reduced.) [15].

4. Case study
In this case, a parabolic trough solar eld aided a 300 MW coalred power unit in Lhasa, Tibet, China (30N and 90E) is exemplied. Lhasa is a region with rich solar resources. The simplied

4.2. Solar eld aperture area selection

In order to determine an appropriate size of solar eld related to
nominal condition for solar aided power system, it is necessary to
set design conditions. For the site, at solar noon on 21st June, DNI is
818 W/m2, air temperature is 21.6 C and the incidence angle (NS
axis orientation) is 6.5. Assuming the mean temperature difference between oil and the feedwater is 10 C [16]; the solar eld
area required to replace the extraction steam of high pressure

Table 2
Main parameters of regenerative system.
Item

unit

GJ1

GJ2

GJ3

CY4

DJ5

DJ6

DJ7

DJ8

100% Load
Extraction pressure
Extraction temperature
Extraction coefcient
Outlet temperature
Drain water temperature

MPa
C

C
C

5.940
386.5
0.077
274.7
246.9

3.520
319.6
0.079
225.2
206.5

1.657
440.8
0.036
187.8
181.1

0.863
349.6
0.034
160.8

0.542
290.7
0.061
140.7
108.6

0.128
144.2
0.022
95.2
91.3

0.068
89.9
0.032
78.6
64.6

0.022
62.69
0.028
53.1
40.8

75% Load
extraction pressure
Extraction temperature
Extraction coefcient
Outlet temperature
Drain water temperature

MPa
C

C
C

4.407
376.9
0.067
256.0
230.2

2.633
312.4
0.070
241.4
192.0

1.253
442.1
0.033
201.2
167.9

0.663
351.7
0.032
175.6

0.418
293.4
0.059
150.9
100.5

0.099
146.4
0.021
103.1
83.9

0.053
91.3
0.032
85.7
58.3

0.017
57.0
0.023
58.9
40.9

50% Load
Extraction pressure
Extraction temperature
Extraction coefcient
Outlet temperature
Drain water temperature

MPa
C

C
C

3.052
377.6
0.058
234.8
210.9

1.808
312.9
0.062
206.0
176.1

0.862
420.5
0.030
171.7
153.8

0.464
333.6
0.031
146.9

0.288
277.6
0.055
128.1
90.8

0.070
135.3
0.021
85.5
75.2

0.037
81.92
0.030
70.0
51.4

0.012
50.0
0.016
46.2
41.4

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H. Hong-juan et al. / Applied Energy 112 (2013) 710718

Input parameters of original coal- fired power unit, such as pi ,

hi and m ti in each stage,hms ,mms ,, et al.

START

calculate p'i using impoved Flugel Formula

Input ,solar field parameters such as I b,n ,Time, date,

local latitude and longitude, L, WIDE, Ac , et al.

pi =(pi +p'i)/2
Calculate QLd

NO

Input k,
YES
Calculate m'ti (constant power
condition)

Qcollector

Calculate Q abs

Q pipe
NO
mti = (m'ti+ mti)/2
YES

Calculate Qcol

Calculate total output of the SAFHCPG plant , Pz

Calculate thermal economical indexes such as Coal

Saving Ratio, et al.

END

Fuel saving mode

Input parameters of original coal-fired power unit, such as pi ,
hi and mti in each stage, hms, mms,, et al.

START

calculate p'i using impoved Flugel Formula

Input ,solar field parameters such as Ib,n,Time, date,

local latitude and longitude, L, WIDE, Ac, et al.

p'i =(pi +p'i)/2 NO

Calculate QLd

Input k,
YES
Calculate total output of the SAFHCPG plant, Pz

Calculate Q abs

Q collector

Q pipe

Calculate economical indexes such as

,et al.

Calculate Qcol
END

Power boosting mode

Fig. 7. Logic ow for a SAFHCPG system performance analysis.

Table 3
Scenarios in this study.
Replacement

Coal-red unit solar aided

Operation mode

Scenario no.

Replacing the extraction steams of HP heaters

100% Load

Power boosting mode

Fuel saving mode
Power boosting mode
Fuel saving mode
Power boosting mode
Fuel saving mode

1
2
3
4
5
6

75% Load
50% Load

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H. Hong-juan et al. / Applied Energy 112 (2013) 710718

Table 4
Performance summary of solar aided coal red power system at design point.
scenario No.

Power output of original unit (MW)

Power output of solar aided power unit (MW)
Feedwater mass ow (t/h)
Solar collector working temperature (C)
Thermal output of solar eld (W/m2)
Power generation of solar energy (MW)
Solar-to-electric efciency (%)
Specic standard coal consumption (g/kW h)
Specic standard coal consumption of the original unit (g/kW h)

307.75
357.53
915.63
185/283
544.7
44.69
26.16
251.26
287.53

307.75
307.75
786.00
185/283
544.7
35.22
20.62
254.29
287.53

230.67
263.18
666.62
174/266
549.21
26.38
15.44
263.42
293.15

230.67
230.67
584.30
174/266
549.21
23.12
13.53
263.42
293.15

154.30
172.70
454.21
160/244
554.48
15.42
9.03
279.44
307.24

154.30
154.30
405.70
160/244
554.48
13.82
8.09
279.36
307.24

Fig. 8. The annual electrical load distribution of the 300 MW unit.

Table 5
Annual performances for different weather conditions.

Annual solar-toelectricity efciency

Power generation of
solar (106 kW h a1)
Standard coal saved
(t/a)
Solar eld thermal
output
(106 kJ/m2 a1)
DNI (kW h/m2 a1)
LEC (/kW h)

Extremely high
radiation year

Typical
radiation
year

Extremely low
radiation year

13.43

14.59

15.92

67.09

66.86

38.59

20519.85

20452.79

12149.65

4.736

4.216

1.724

3008
0.650

2845
0.652

1485
1.130

Fig. 9. Annual DNI distribution in different typical years.

All the results are calculated at the design point where the aperture area of solar
eld is 209,595 m2.

heaters No. 13 as showed in Fig. 1 is 210,028 m2. Therefore, it is

determined that 209,595 m2 of solar eld with 445 loops comprising 10 sets of LS-2 collectors (module size: 47.1  5 = 235.5 m2
aperture area [12]) are set as the reference for the following analysis. In the solar eld, the spacing between collector rows is
12.5 m.
Fig. 10. The variation of annual power generation of solar with solar eld area.

4.3. Performance analysis

In a coal-red power generation, the operating condition needs
adjusting based on the requirements of electrical load on the grid
side. In a SAFHCPG, system performance is inuenced by the dual
effects of the solar radiation intensity and the electrical load demand on the grid side. The performance of solar aided power system is analyzed in 50%, 75% and 100% full load conditions of two

typical operating modes under design conditions. The logic ow

for a computer program to carry out the analysis is showed in
Fig. 7. Table 3 lists the SAFHCPG scenarios of this study; the results
under different scenarios are listed in the Table 4.
From Table 4, it can be seen that No. 1 scenario is best. The solar-to-electric efciency is 26.16%. The lower load of the coal-red
power plant operated at, the lower solar-to-electric efciency
would be. In addition, the solar-to-electric efciency of the power

H. Hong-juan et al. / Applied Energy 112 (2013) 710718

717

boosting mode is better than that of the fuel saving mode. The reason is thought to be: the solar eld was designed for scenario No. 1,
thus was over-sized for other scenarios. For the other scenarios or
when the plant operated at the lower load, the extra solar energy
would be lost. The required solar power changes from 44.69 MW
in scenario No. 1 to 13.82 MW in scenario No. 6. Correspondingly,
the solar-to-electric efciency changes from 26.16% to 8.09%.
Besides the nominal performance, the annual performance is
also very important for solar aided coal-red power plant. Therefore the annual performance of the SAFHCPG with electrical load
distribution shown in Fig. 8 has been calculated using hourly meteor data of different weather conditions (typical radiation year,
extremely high radiation year and extremely low radiation year)
and shown in Table 5. Fig. 9 shows the DNI distributions under different weather conditions [17].

4.4. Aperture area of solar eld optimization

On one side, since solar energy is unstable and periodical,
mostly, DNI value does not equal to that in nominal condition.
On the other side, the plant is not always at full load operation.
Therefore, a proper solar eld size is fundamental and crucial. An
overlarge eld would be partially useless under high solar irradiance values whereas a small eld would not produce enough solar
heat output.

Fig. 11. The variation of specic standard coal consumption with solar eld area.

Fig. 13. The variation of LEC with solar eld area.

The correlation between the annual performance of the fuel

saving mode and the solar eld area is analyzed, with the consideration of solar radiation intensity and the load distribution. The
load and DNI distributions are shown in Figs. 8 and 9. In Fig. 9,
the annual DNI values are 3008 kW h/m2 a1 in extremely high
radiation year, 2845 kW h/m2 a1 in typical year and 1485 kW
h/m2 a1 in extremely low radiation year respectively. The analysis
results are shown in Figs. 1013.
Figs. 10 and 11 show that, annual power generation from solar
energy increases quickly at rst, then slow down with increasing
aperture area of the solar eld.
As observed from Fig. 12, when aperture area of solar eld increases, annual solar-to-electric efciency rst increases, reaching
a maximum value, and then decreases. The aperture areas corresponding to the maximum annual solar-to-electric efciency of
the three chosen years are range from 91845 m2 to 138945 m2.
The reason is thought to be that as the aperture area of solar eld
increases, the more extraction steam of higher grade would be replaced in order of extraction steam of high pressure heaters No. 3,
No. 2, and No. 1. Annual solar-to-electric efciency reaches a peak
value when the extraction steam of heater No. 1 is totally replaced.
If the aperture area of solar eld continued increasing, annual solar-to-electric efciency would decrease due to the increase of unused solar heat.
When the aperture area of solar eld increases, as shown in
Fig. 13; LEC rst decreases, reaching a minimum value, and then
increases. In other words, an optimum aperture area of solar eld
in each typical year exists. The corresponding LEC values are:
0.426 /kW h, 0.472 /kW h, 1.010 /kW h for extremely high radiation year, typical year and extremely low radiation year respectively. All the above LEC values are lower than that of the design
condition listed in Table 5.

5. Conclusions

Fig. 12. The variation of annual solar-to-electric efciency with solar eld area.

The behavior of the SAFHCPG plant under different operational

modes (power boosting and fuel saving) and part load conditions
have been analyzed. The obtained results indicate that, system performance varies in each scenario. No. 1 is the best scenario, in
which the solar-to-electric efciency can reach as high as 26.16%.
While in scenario No. 6, it is only 8.09%. The lower load the plant
was operated at, the lower solar-to-electric efciency would be.
The optimum aperture area of the solar eld in the study case
has been analyzed based on the annual performance. In the

718

H. Hong-juan et al. / Applied Energy 112 (2013) 710718

analysis, the solar radiation intensity and the electrical load demand on the grid side were considered.
It can be drawn that, as the aperture area of solar eld increases,
annual power generation from solar increases while specic
standard coal consumption declines. In addition, for each typical
year there is a maximum annual solar-to-electric efciency and a
lowest LEC existing. Generally, the aperture area of solar eld
corresponded to a maximum annual solar-to-electric efciency is
not always to the same as that of a lowest LEC. However, in the
specic case studied in the paper, the values are coincidentally
the same. As regard to the chosen case, the optimum aperture area
and lowest LEC are: 115395 m2 and 0.472 /kW h in typical
year; 138945 m2 and 1.010 /kW h in extremely low radiation
year; 91845 m2 and 0.426 /kW h in extremely high radiation year
respectively.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (51206049); the National Basic Research
Program of China (973 Program) (Grant No. 2009CB219801);
and The National High Technology Research and Development
Program of China (863 Program) (2012AA050604).
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