“Towards Global Technical Excellence”

Project Report on industrial visit to

‘ Thermal Power Station Paras ’

Submitted By

Apekshit Ghanade (16003025) Aditi Deshmukh (16003027)

Saurabh Takarkhede (16003029) Shraddha Gandole (16003030)

Prajyot Nimsarkar (16003031)

(DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING)

GOVERNMENT COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING,

AMRAVATI, 444604
(An Autonomous Institute of Government of Maharashtra)

2018-2019
 (DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING)

GOVERNMENT COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING ,

AMRAVATI
(An Autonomous Institute of Government of Maharashtra)

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the following students have submitted the Project Report on industrial
visit to ‘Thermal Power Station Paras’ during academic year 2018-19.

Date: 21-08-2018

Name of students

Apekshit Ghanade (16003025) Aditi Deshmukh (16003027)

Saurabh Takarkhede (16003029) Shraddha Gandole (16003030)

Prajyot Nimsarkar (16003031)

Dr.R.B.Sharma Prof.A.S.Sindekar

(Report Guide) (Head of Department)

Electrical Engineering, GCOEA Electrical Engineering, GCOEA

 INDEX

Chapter Topic No. Contents Page

No. No.
Acknowledgement
Abstract
1. Introduction
1.1 About Paras Thermal Power 1
Plant
1.2 Thermal power plant 1
2. Different parts of power
station
2.1 Coal Preparation 5
2.2 Fuel Preparation System 5
2.3 Dryers 6
2.4 Magnetic Separators 6
2.5 Fans 6
2.6 Boiler and Auxiliaries 7
2.7 Economiser 8
2.8 Air Preheater 9
2.9 Super heater 9
2.10 Turbine 9
2.11 Generator 10
2.12 Condenser 11
2.13 Cooling Tower 11
2.13 Ash Handling Plant 11
3. Thermal Power Operation 13
4. Conclusion 14
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We express our feeling of gratitude to the Chief Engineer (C&O), Paras Thermal
Power Station for granting permission to visit the plant. We are especially very much
thankful to Mr. Amol Patil (JE), who took great effort to share his practical knowledge to
enhance the technical skill of the students. We would like to appreciate their concern for the
technical upliftment of the students.

We are very much thankful to Prof. A. S. Sindekar HOD of Electrical Department

for allowing and guiding for the proper execution of the visit.

We are very much thankful to the management of Government college of

Engineering, Amravati for allowing the visit. We are also thankful to Dr. R. B. Sharma and
Prof. V. M. Harne for their cooperation throughout our visit.

We are also thankful to Prof. M.M Deshmukh (T& P Cell) who encourages us
financially.
 ABSTRACT

Paras Thermal Power Plant is oldest power plant of Maharashtra State Power
Generation Company (MAHAGENCO) located at Paras, Akola district of Maharashtra. The
power plant is one of the coal based power plants of MAHAGENCO Paras Thermal Power
Station is the oldest of all MAHAGENCO Power plants. The station has witnessed the third
generation technology.

The station had 30 MW installed capacity in 1961 with a stroke boiler Almost two
third of electricity requirement of the world is fulfilled by thermal power plants (or thermal
power stations). In these power stations, steam is produced by burning some fossil fuel (e.g.
coal) and then used to run a steam turbine.

Thus, a thermal power station may sometimes called as a Steam Power Station. After
the steam passes through the steam turbine, it is condensed in a condenser and again fed back
into the boiler to become steam. This is known as ranking cycle. This article explains how
electricity is generated in thermal power plants. As majority of thermal power plants use coal
as their primary fuel, this article is focused on a coal fired thermal power plant.
 Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION

1.1 About Paras Thermal Power Plant

Paras Thermal Power Plant is oldest power plant of Maharashtra State Power
Generation Company (MAHAGENCO) located at Paras, Akola district of Maharashtra. The
power plant is one of the coal based power plants of MAHAGENCO.
Paras Thermal Power Station is the oldest of all MAHAGENCO plants. The station
has witnessed the third generation technology. The station had 30 MW installed capacity
Power in 1961 with a stroke boiler. The same unit we abandoned in 1993 due to ageing.
It is on the Nagpur–Bhusawal section of Central Railway. Coal-based thermal power stations
consume large quantities of coal. For example, the Paras Thermal Power Station consumed
351,000 tonnes of coal in 2006-07. Around 80 per cent of the domestic coal supplies in India
are meant for coal based thermal power plants and coal transportation forms 42 per cent of
the total freight earnings of Indian railways.
MAHAGENCO's Paras Thermal Power Station located near Akola completed 50
years in power generation on October 25 and marching towards overall renovation.
Later, one more unit of 58MW was developed in the power station. Due to old age of the
units, MAHAGENCO had replaced the old units with new ones and both of the units are
non-existent today.
Paras TPS has started to witness a fresh life with commissioning of two new units in
last couple of years. Currently, two units each with capacity of 250MW for a total of 500MW
have been functioning at the power station, thus playing a vital role in state's power scenario.
Besides, MAHAGENCO has proposed to develop one more new unit with capacity of
660MW.

1.2 Thermal power Plant

A thermal power station is a power plant in which heat energy is converted to electric
power. In most of the places in the world the turbine is steam-driven. Water is heated, turns
into steam and spins a steam turbine which drives an electrical generator. After it passes

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through the turbine, the steam is condensed in a condenser and recycled to where it was
heated; this is known as a Rankin cycle. The greatest variation in the design of thermal power
stations is due to the different heat sources, fossil fuel dominates here, although nuclear heat
energy and solar heat energy are also used. Some prefer to use the term energy centre because
such facilities convert forms of heat energy into electrical energy. Certain thermal power
plants also are designed to produce heat energy for industrial purposes of district heating, or
desalination of water, in addition to generating electrical power.
A coal based thermal power plant converts the chemical energy of the coal into
electrical energy. This is achieved by raising the steam in the boilers, expanding it through
the turbine and coupling the turbines to the generators which converts mechanical energy into
electrical energy. Introductory overview in a coal based power plant coal is transported from
coal mines to the power plant by railway in wagons or in a merry-go-round system. Coal is
unloaded from the wagons to a moving underground conveyor belt. This coal from the mines
is of no uniform size. So it is taken to the Crusher house and to a size of 20mm. From the
crusher house the coal is either stored in dead storage( generally 40 days coal supply) which
serves as coal supply in case of coal supply bottleneck or to the live storage(8 hours coal
supply) in the raw coal bunker in the boiler house. Raw coal from the raw coal bunker is
supplied to the Coal Mills by a Raw Coal Feeder. The Coal Mills or pulveriser pulverizes the
coal to 200 mesh size. The powdered coal from the coal mills is carried to the boiler in coal
pipes by high pressure hot air. The pulverized coal air mixture is burnt in the boiler in the
combustion zone. Generally in modern boilers tangential firing system is used i.e. the coal
nozzles/ guns form tangent to a circle. The temperature in fire ball is of the order of 1300o C.
The boiler is a water tube boiler hanging from the top. Water is converted to steam in
the boiler and steam is separated from water in the boiler Drum. The saturated steam from the
boiler drum is taken to the Low Temperature Super heater, Platen Super heater and Final
Super heater respectively for superheating. The superheated steam from the final super heater
is taken to the High Pressure Steam Turbine (HPT). In the HPT the steam pressure is utilized
to rotate the turbine and the resultant is rotational energy. From the HPT the out coming
steam is taken to the reheater in the boiler to increase its temperature as the steam becomes
wet at the HPT outlet. After reheating this steam is taken to the Intermediate Pressure Turbine
(IPT) and then to the Low Pressure Turbine (LPT). The outlet of the LPT is sent to the
condenser for condensing back to water by a cooling water system. This condensed water is
collected in the hot well and is again sent to the boiler in a closed cycle. The rotational energy

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imparted to the turbine by high pressure steam is converted to electrical energy in the
Generator.

Fig 1.1: Thermal Power Plant

1.2.1 Types of Thermal Energy

Almost all coal, nuclear, geothermal, solar thermal electric and waste incineration
plants, as well as many natural gas power plants are thermal. Natural gas is frequently
combusted in gas turbines as well as boilers. The waste heat from a gas turbine, in the form of
hot exhaust gas, can be used to raise steam, by passing this gas through a Heat Recovery
Steam Generator (HRSG) the steam is then used to drive a steam turbine in a combined cycle
plant that improves overall efficiency. Power plants burning coal, fuel oil, or natural gas are
often called fossil-fuel power plants. Some biomass- fuelled thermal power plants have
appeared also. Non-nuclear thermal power plants, particularly fossil-fuelled plants, which do
not use co-generation are sometimes referred to as conventional power plants.
Commercial electric utility power stations are usually constructed on a large scale and
designed for continuous operation. Virtually all Electric power plants use three-phase
electrical generators to produce alternating current (AC) electric power at a frequency of 50
Hz or 60 Hz. Large companies or institutions may have their own power plants to supply
heating or electricity to their facilities, especially if steam is created anyway for other
purposes. Steam-driven power plants have been used to drive most ships in most of the 20th
century until recently. Steam power plants are now only used in large nuclear naval ships.

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Shipboard power plants usually directly couple the turbine to the ship's propellers through
gearboxes. Power plants in such ships also provide steam to smaller turbines driving electric
generators to supply electricity. Nuclear marine propulsion is, with few exceptions, used only
in naval vessels.
There have been many turboelectric ships in which a steam driven turbine drives an
electric generator which powers an electric motor for propulsion.
Combined heat and power plants (CH&P plants), often called co-generation plants,
produce both electric power and heat for process heat or space heating steam and hot water.

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 Chapter 2
Different Elements Of Thermal Power Station

2.1 Coal Preparation

Fig 2.1: Coal Handling Plant

2.2 Fuel preparation system

In coal-fired power stations, the raw feed coal from the coal storage area is first
crushed into small pieces and then conveyed to the coal feed hoppers at the boilers. The coal
is next pulverized into a very fine powder, so that coal will undergo complete combustion
during combustion process.
Pulveriser is a mechanical device for the grinding of many different types of
materials. For example, they are used to pulverize coal for combustion in the steam-
generating furnaces of fossil fuel power plants

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 Types of Pulverisers: Ball and Tube mills; Ring and Ball mills; MPS; Ball mill;
Demolition.

2.3 Dryers

They are used in order to remove the excess moisture from coal mainly wetted during
transport. As the presence of moisture will result in fall in efficiency due to incomplete
combustion and also result in CO emission.

2.4 Magnetic separators

Coal which is brought may contain iron particles. These iron particles may result in
wear and tear. The iron particles may include bolts, nuts wire fish plates etc. so these are
unwanted and so are removed with the help of magnetic separators. The coal we finally get
after these above process are transferred to the storage site.
Purpose of fuel storage is: 1. Fuel storage is insurance from failure of normal
operating supplies to arrive. 2. Storage permits some choice of the date of purchase, allowing
the purchaser to take advantage of seasonal market conditions. Storage of coal is primarily a
matter of protection against the coal strikes, failure of the transportation system & general
coal shortages.

2.5 Fans
In a boiler it is essential to supply a controlled amount of air to the furnace for
Effective combustion of fuel and to evacuate hot gases formed in the furnace through the
various heat transfer area of the boiler. This can be done by using a chimney or mechanical
device such as fans which acts as pump.

2.5.1 Natural fans: When the required flow of air and flue gas through a boiler
can be obtained by the stack (chimney) alone, the system is called natural
draught. When the gas within the stack is hot, its specific weight will be less
than the cool air outside; therefore the unit pressure at the base of stack
resulting from weight of the column of hot gas within the stack will be less
than the column of extreme cool air. The difference in the pressure will cause
a flow of gas through opening in base of stack. Also the chimney is form of

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 nozzle, so the pressure at top is very small and gases flow from high pressure
to low pressure at the top.

2.5.2 Mechanized fans: There are 3 types of mechanized draught systems

 Forced draught fan: In this system a fan called Forced draught fan is installed at
the inlet of the boiler. This fan forces the atmospheric air through the boiler furnace
and pushes out the hot gases from the furnace through super heater, reheater,
economiser and air heater to stacks.

 Induced draught fan: Here a fan called ID fan is provided at the outlet of boiler,
that is, just before the chimney. This fan sucks hot gases from the furnace through the
super heaters, economiser, reheater and discharges gas into the chimney. This results
in the furnace pressure lower than atmosphere and affects the flow of air from outside
to the furnace.

 Primary Draught fan: In this system both FD fan and ID fan are provided. The
FD fan is utilized to draw control quantity of air from atmosphere and force the same
into furnace. The ID fan sucks the product of combustion from furnace and discharges
into chimney. The point where draught is zero is called balancing point.

2.6 Boiler and auxiliaries

A Boiler or steam generator essentially is a container into which water can be fed and
steam can be taken out at desired pressure, temperature and flow. This calls for application of
heat on the container. For that the boiler should have a facility to burn a fuel and release the
heat. The functions of a boiler thus can be stated as:-
 To convert chemical energy of the fuel into heat energy
 To transfer this heat energy to water for evaporation as well to steam for
superheating.

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The types of Boiler are:

2.6.1 Fire tube Boiler: In fire-tube boilers, combustion gases pass through the
inside of the tubes with water surrounding the outside of the tubes. The
advantages of a fire-tube boiler are its simple construction and less rigid
water treatment requirements. The disadvantages are the excessive weight
per pound of steam generated, excessive time required to raise steam
pressure because of the relatively large volume of water, and inability to
respond quickly to load changes, again, due to the large water volume.
The most common fire-tube boilers used in facility heating applications are
often referred to as ''scotch'' or ''scotch marine'' boilers, as this boiler type was
commonly used for marine service because of its compact size (fire-box integral
with boiler section).

2.6.2 Water tube Boiler: Water tube Boiler in a water-tube boiler, the water is
inside the tubes and combustion gases pass around the outside of the tubes.
The advantages of a water-tube boiler area lower unit weight-per-pound of
steam generated, less time required to raise steam pressure, a greater
flexibility for responding to load changes, and a greater ability to operate at
high rates of steam generation. A water-tube design is the exact opposite of a
fire-tube. Here, the water flows through the tubes and is encased in a furnace
in which the burner fires. These tubes are connected to a steam drum and a
mud drum. The water is heated and steam is produced in the upper drum.

2.7 Economiser
It is located below the LPSH in the boiler and above pre heater. It is there to improve
the efficiency of boiler by extracting heat from flue gases to heat water and send it to boiler
drum.
Advantages of Economiser include
 Fuel economy:– used to save fuel and increase overall efficiency of boiler plant.
 Reducing size of boiler:– as the feed water is preheated in the economiser and enter
boiler tube at elevated temperature. The heat transfer area required for evaporation
reduced considerably.

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 2.8 Air Preheater
The heat carried out with the flue gases coming out of economiser are further utilized
for preheating the air before supplying to the combustion chamber. It is necessary equipment
for supply of hot air for drying the coal in pulverized fuel systems to facilitate grinding and
satisfactory combustion of fuel in the furnace.

2.9 Super heater

Power plant furnaces may have a reheater section containing tubes heated by hot flue
gases outside the tubes. Exhaust steam from the high pressure turbine is rerouted to go inside
the reheater tubes to pickup more energy to go drive intermediate or lower pressure turbines.
When a steam system is designed for superheat, the designer should ensure that the steam exit
the super heater is superheated about5.6o C(10o C)higher than the desired superheat
temperature. The steam temperature is not controlled using bypasses on the super heaters but
by desuper heating equipment.

2.10 Turbine
Gas, steam, and water turbines have a casing around the blades that contains and
controls the working fluid. Credit for invention of the steam turbine is given both to British
engineer Sir Charles Parsons (1854–1931) for invention of the reaction turbine, and to
Swedish engineer Gustaf de Laval (1845–1913) for invention of the impulse turbine. Modern
steam turbines frequently employ both reaction and impulse in the same unit, typically
varying the degree of reaction and impulse from the blade root to its periphery.

2.10.1 Steam turbines: Steam turbines have been used predominantly as prime
mover in all thermal power stations. The steam turbines are mainly divided
into two groups: -
 Impulse turbine
 Impulse-reaction turbine
The turbine generator consists of a series of steam turbines interconnected to each
other and a generator on a common shaft. There is a high pressure turbine at one
end, followed by an intermediate pressure turbine, two low pressure turbines, and
the generator. The steam at high temperature (536oc to 540oc) and pressure (140
to 170 kg/cm3) is expanded in the turbine.
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 2.10.2 Water Turbine: A water turbine is a rotary machine that converts kinetic
energy and potential energy of water into mechanical work. Water turbines
were developed in the19th century and were widely used for industrial power
prior to electrical grids. Now they are mostly used for electric power
generation. Water turbines are mostly found in dams to generate electric
power from water kinetic energy.

2.10.3 Wind Turbine: A wind turbine is a device that converts the wind's kinetic
energy into electrical power. Wind turbines are manufactured in a wide range
of vertical and horizontal axis types. The smallest turbines are used for
applications such as battery charging for auxiliary power for boats or
caravans or to power traffic warning signs. Slightly larger turbines can be
used for making contributions to a domestic power supply while selling
unused power back to the utility supplier via the electrical grid. Arrays of
large turbines, known as wind farms, are becoming an increasingly important
source of intermittent renewable energy and are used by many countries as
part of a strategy to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels.

2.11 Generator
Generator or Alternator is the electrical end of a turbo-generator set. It is generally
known as the piece of equipment that converts the mechanical energy of turbine into
electricity. The generation of electricity is based on the principle of electromagnetic
induction. In electricity generation, a generator is a device that converts mechanical energy to
electrical energy for use in an external circuit. Sources of mechanical energy include steam
turbines, gas turbines, water turbines, and internal combustion engines and even hand cranks.
The first electromagnetic generator, the Faraday disk, was built in 1831 by British scientist
Michael Faraday. Generators provide nearly all of the power for electric power grids. The
reverse conversion of electrical energy into mechanical energy is done by an electric motor,
and motors and generators have many similarities. Many motors can be mechanically driven
to generate electricity and frequently make acceptable manual generators.

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 2.12 Condenser
The condenser condenses the steam from the exhaust of the turbine into liquid to
allow it to be pumped. If the condenser can be made cooler, the pressure of the exhaust steam
is reduced and efficiency of the cycle increases.
The functions of a condenser are:-
 To provide lowest economic heat rejection temperature for steam.
 To convert exhaust steam to water for reserve thus saving on feed water requirement.
 To introduce make up water. We normally use surface condenser although there is
one direct contact condenser as well. In direct contact type exhaust steam is mixed
with directly with D.M cooling water.

2.13 Cooling tower

The cooling tower is a semi-enclosed device for evaporative cooling of water by
contact with air. The hot water coming out from the condenser is fed to the tower on the top
and allowed to tickle in form of thin sheets or drops. The air flows from bottom of the tower
or perpendicular to the direction of water flow and then exhausts to the atmosphere after
effective cooling.
The cooling towers are of four types: -
i) Natural Draft cooling tower
ii) Forced Draft cooling tower
iii) Induced Draft cooling tower
iv) Balanced Draft cooling tower

2.14 Ash handling system

The disposal of ash from a large capacity power station is of same importance as ash
is produced in large quantities. Ash handling is a major problem.
Manual handling: While barrows are used for this. The ash is collected directly through the
ash outlet door from the boiler into the container from manually.
Mechanical handling: Mechanical equipment is used for ash disposal, mainly bucket
elevator, belt conveyer. Ash generated is 20% in the form of bottom ash and next 80%
through flue gases, so called Fly ash and collected in ESP.

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 Electrostatic precipitator: From air preheater this flue gases (mixed with ash) goes to
ESP. The precipitator has plate banks (A-F) which are insulated from each other between
which the flue gases are made to pass. The dust particles are ionized and attracted by charged
electrodes. The electrodes are maintained at 60KV.Hammering is done to the plates so that
fly ash comes down and collect at the bottom. The fly ash is dry form is used in cement
manufacture.

Advantages of coal based thermal Power Plant:

 They can respond to rapidly changing loads without difficulty
 A portion of the steam generated can be used as a process steam in different industries
 Steam engines and turbines can work under 25 % of overload continuously
 Fuel used is cheaper
 Cheaper in production cost in comparison with that of diesel power stations

Disadvantages of coal based thermal Power Plant:

 Maintenance and operating costs are high
 Long time required for erection and putting into action
 A large quantity of water is required
 Great difficulty experienced in coal handling
 Presence of troubles due to smoke and heat in the plant
 Unavailability of good quality coal
 Maximum of heat energy lost
 Problem of ash removing

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 Chapter 3
Thermal Power Plants Operation

Thermal power plants use water as working fluid. Nuclear and coal based power
plants fall under this category. The way energy from fuel gets transformed into electricity
forms the working of a power plant. In a thermal power plant a steam turbine is rotated with
help of high pressure and high temperature steam and this rotation is transferred to a
generator to produce electricity.

When turbine blades get rotated by high pressure high temperature steam, the steam
loses its energy. This in turn will result in a low pressure and low temperature steam at the
outlet of the turbine. Here steam is expanded till saturation point is reached. Since there is no
heat addition or removal from the steam, ideally entropy of the steam remains same. If we
can bring this low pressure, low temperature steam back to its original state, then we can
produce electricity continuously.

Fig 3.1: Thermal Power Plant Operation

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 Chapter 4
Conclusion

Company has proposed to set-up 500 MW Coal fired Thermal Power Project based
on Super Critical Technology. State Government has supported this Project and has issued
letter of support to provide all kind of administrative support required. The Company has
already acquired the land required for the Main plant from Industrial Development
Corporation and has made the requisite payments. The remaining required land has been
identified and the process of acquisition is underway.

The Project requires about 351,000 Tonnes coal based on average Operational at
87.63 % PLF, generation at 462 MW Appropriate arrangements are proposed to be done. The
water is taken from two barrages Lower Mun barrage and upper Mun barrage near Balapur.
The Project will require about 150 cubic meters per hour make-up water during operation. A
raw water reservoir of 25200 m3 capacity to hold 7 days requirement for plant requirement of
water will be constructed at the plant site. Of the total 500 MW of power is proposed to be
sold as 4.15 as per CERC tariff. Considering the cost of generation of Rs. 2.35 per unit,
company does not envisage any difficulties in selling the power through merchant route.
Power Evacuation will be through two double circuit 440 KV transmission lines connecting
the Project to the MSEB substation and State MAHAGENCO substation.

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The student of Government College of engineering, Amravati had gone for an industrial visit
to Paras thermal power station, Akola and had learned about the power generation. Such
industrial visit helps the student in understanding the practical application side of the course.

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 OUR EXPERIENCE FROM THE INDUSTRIAL VISIT

After completing the industrial visit, we have upgraded our knowledge at a very great
level. It was a good learning experience. In each and every department, we got some or the
other new ideas and new thinking which was necessary for development.
Thank You….!!

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