Coal-fired power plants flexibility

options and challenges

Dr Colin Henderson
IEA Clean Coal Centre

Presentation to UNECE/WCA Workshop on the

Sustainability Credentials of Coal and its Role
in the UN, Geneva, 26 October 2016
 Presentation structure

IEA Clean Coal Centre introduction

Need for flexible operation of coal plants
Outline of requirements and technical means to
achieve flexibility
Summary
 The IEA Clean Coal Centre

We are an international organisation,

endorsed by the International Energy
Agency. We provide independent,
objective information on how to use
coal more effectively, efficiently and
cleanly, to minimise its environmental
impact while providing cost effective
energy
 IEA Clean Coal Centre activities

IEA CCC output includes:

comprehensive assessment reports on all aspects of
clean coal technology
webinars based primarily on the assessment reports
technical workshops on key clean coal issues
Clean Coal Technologies conference series
web based dissemination services
capacity building activities in developing countries
and industrialising nations, with knowledge transfer
on coal related energy and environmental issues
 Flexible operation the challenge

Electricity output from wind and solar renewable

units fluctuates and these plants are among the
first called to generate
A rising proportion of these renewables is reducing
the inertia of grids, presenting challenges for
stability and security of supplies
Coal and gas-fired power plants are having to
operate at highly variable load and turn on and off
to keep grids stable
The situation is currently most applicable to
Western grids but will apply elsewhere in future
until new large scale energy storage become a
reality
 An example

These graphs, from

Hitachi, compare the
monthly pattern of
load and generation
for Germany in 2010
(upper) with a
prediction for 2020
The coal units have
to be able to change
in output very
quickly to balance
supply and provide
more frequency
control
Typical ramp rates of
2-5%/min older PCC
units necessitate
improvements
(Busekrus, 2012 referenced in 2014 IEA CCC report by the presenter)
 The trend to renewables

Again, using the German example, the trend is dramatic

The changes over the twelve years to 2015 are shown
here
 Impact of wind on coal unit cycling

This slide (data from the Public Service Company in Colorado,

USA) shows coal plants ramping and shutting down to fill the
gap in demand left by fluctuations from the intermittency of
wind power production in the region
Implications of cycling and variable load
operation
 Requirements

Greater resilience for high availability

Capability of fast start-up and rapid ramp rates
Means to meet wide load range
Reduced minimum output capability to minimise
need for shut-down (damaging and expensive)
Maintenance of efficiency as far as possible
Maintenance of emissions compliance
For retrofits and new plants
Provision of frequency control
 Approximate cost of starting up a coal unit

Cold start off >48 h; start-up 7-15 h $100,000-

350,000
Warm start off 8-48 h; start-up 3-6 h $5,000-6,000
Hot start off <8 h; start-up 1-3 h $4,000-5,000
 A spreading problem

Renewable power units are being installed in many

parts of the world. For example
China is projected to have, by end of 2016, 120GW of wind,
43 GW of solar, and 320 GW of hydro power (NEA, reported
by Bloomberg)
India has plans for 100 GW of solar power by 2022 (WSJ)
Many other countries are interested in increasing their
wind or solar capacity

In many of these countries, coal will remain, with

gas, important in supplying significant power, so
flexibility will be needed in these plants until new
large scale energy storage become a reality
 Plant areas affected in operating flexibly

Boiler tubes, ties, headers, membrane walls - life

consumption from fatigue, creep-fatigue, corrosion,
expansion
Turbine valves, casings, rotors life consumption
Achieving very low firing rates
Other impacts
air heater corrosion and leakage
lower efficiency, incr. cost
higher emissions
 Plant areas affected in operating flexibly

Boiler tubes, ties, headers, membrane walls - life

consumption from fatigue, creep-fatigue, corrosion,
expansion
Turbine valves, casings, rotors life consumption
Achieving very low firing rates
Other impacts
air heater corrosion and leakage
lower efficiency, incr. cost
higher emissions

New systems improve

flexibility and reduce
adverse impacts
 Challenges in operating flexibly
combustion systems

Firing down to very low rates

 Firing systems bituminous coals

Range of operation without support can be extended

to lower loads by:
Mill size and burner changes loads down to 25% on
two mills
Loads even of 15% on one mill achievable in corner-
fired tangential systems, as at Heilbronn Unit 7

Burner operating range - design with four mills for hard Heilbronn power station, Germany
coal (Brggemann and Marling, 2012) Photo: Kreuzschnabel Wikimedia Commons
 Firing systems indirect firing

Indirect firing can achieve

10% load or even lower
Reduction in inertia of
system allows firing
ramping up to 10%/min

Indirect firing of pulverised coal

(Busekrus, 2012)
 Challenges in operating flexibly boiler
components
Boiler tubes, ties, headers, membrane walls life
consumption from fatigue, creep-fatigue, corrosion,
expansion
 Boiler pipework improvements for
greater flexibility

Increasing ramp rate through reducing

thermal gradients by:
Using new steels to allow reduced
metal thicknesses
Increasing number of headers
External steam heating and hot storage
systems
Reducing the minimum load by, for
example:
Evaporator design, such as rifled tubing in new
boilers
Economiser or feedwater heater bypasses
 Potential issues in operating flexibly
turbine

Turbine valves, casings, rotors life consumption and

achieving fast varying output
 Turbine and water/steam systems
achieving greater integrity

Features available for faster response, greater

resilience and reduced losses include:
Steam cooling of thick-walled outer casings
Use of sliding pressure (whole plant aspect)
Turbine bypass, so rate of steam temperature
change can be managed during start-up and shut-
down
Advanced sealing and other
measures to ensure correct
clearances during cold start-up

USC steam turbine at J-POWERs Isogo Unit 1, Japan

 Turbine and water/steam systems
achieving flexibility

Methods for short-term additional

power and frequency control:
Turbine throttling, condensate
throttling
Feedwater heater by-pass
Thermal storage (feedwater
tanks with hot and cold water
displacement)
HP stage by-pass for
frequency control over whole
load range
 Challenges in operating flexibly
emissions control systems

Systems can be affected by off-design conditions

 Emissions control systems

These need to be able to cope with load swings,

low loads and shut-downs
SCR: needs to be at correct temperature to prevent
catalyst blocking and harm to airheater. Solutions:
economiser by-pass, heating facilities, baffles
FGD needs sophisticated control;
shut-downs are unwelcome;
liquid/gas ratio may need to be
increased at lower loads
ESPs and fabric filters can
accommodate rapid load changes
provided that temperatures do not
fall too low causing moisture to
condense
 Control systems (1)

Generally worthwhile replacing control and

instrumentation systems in older plant to increase
efficiency and flexibility
Such retrofits can give faster ramp rates and lower
minimum loads

Improvement in minimum load and ramp rate of 600 MW lignite units by

fitting new control systems (Eichholz and others, 2013)
 Control systems (2)

Modern control system retrofits can also give:

Stabilisation of non-stable loops from plant ageing
Better management of turbine temperatures and
clearances
Whole-plant self-learning predictive systems
Combined operation of
multiple units with
eventual future remote
co-ordination

Using control systems to combine multiple units

for greater ramp rates (Schrck and Drr, 2013)
 Flexibility in other types of coal-fired plants

Lagisza SC CFBC in Poland

CFBC
Water-steam cycles similar to
those of PCC
CFBCs can be reasonably good at load following, but
the boiler arrangement and fuel combustion systems
can limit minimum load in absence of supplementary
fuel
The system is less well suited to on-off cycling
because of potential for refractory damage and the
desirability of keeping the bed temperature close to
operating range
 Flexibility in other types of coal-fired plants

Edwardsport IGCC, USA

IGCC plants
Flexibility not a targeted
design feature to date
Minimum load typically 40 -
50% of MCR
Ramp rate similar to that of many older PCC units
Studies have been carried out based on using
syngas or oxygen storage or polygeneration
If IGCC plants start to be ordered in large numbers,
designing for flexibility will become more important
 Flexibility in other types of coal-fired plants

A-USC plants
There are programmes around the world to develop
these high temperature (700C+ steam) PCC plants
They will include advanced nickel-based alloys
None have yet been built, so laboratory tests and
studies are all that we have for flexibility assessment
Low thermal conductivity and high expansion
coefficient of the superalloys are potential issues

Properties of a nickel alloy

and a martensitic steel
(Gierschner and others, 2012)
 Flexibility in carbon capture coal-fired plants

Some CO2 capture plants may be able to operate at

base load, but others will need to operate flexibly
as renewable plants will be called to operate first
A number of possible ways of achieving flexibility
are being studied:
Storage of spent solvent in post-combustion
scrubbing-fitted plants
Oxygen storage in IGCC and oxy-fuel CCS plants
Hydrogen storage or polygeneration in IGCC CCS
plants
 Summary

Varying output from renewable energy plants is forcing

fossil units to operate very flexibly
Coal will be competing with gas for providing rapidly
responding output and can meet the challenge
The main technical needs are capabilities for rapid start-
up, fast load following and grid frequency stabilisation
Potential life-limiting effects of plant cycling are known
and new or retrofitted systems can give high flexibility
with good plant life and efficiency
It not known for certain how much flexibility A-USC or
IGCC plants could ultimately achieve, but it may be
possible to exploit the energy storage potential of IGCC
For CO2 capture plants, a number of possible ways of
achieving flexibility are being explored in concept
 Coal-fired power plants flexibility
options and challenges

For free download of reports go to www.iea-coal.org,

register and search under Publications, Final Reports:
Increasing-the-flexibility-of-coal-fired-power-plants, CCC/242
(Colin Henderson, 2014)
Levelling-the-intermittency-of-renewables-with-coal,CCC/268
(Lesley Sloss, 2016)

Thank you!

colin.henderson@iea-coal.org