Title: Redundancy optimisation of a coal fired power plant using simulated annealing technique

Authors: Ravinder Kumar

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Maharishi Markandeshwar University, Mullana, India

Abstract: Due to limited reserve potential of petroleum and natural gas, eco-conservation restriction on hydroelectric projects followed by geopolitical perception of nuclear power; coal can be considered as the backbone for the present energy production scenario. From a purely economic point of view, the maximisation of overall profit of coal-fired thermal power plant is a very complex activity. In the present work, the focus is given to identify the redundancy level on various components or subsystems of the coal fired power plant using modelling, simulation and optimisation tools, so and so, that the overall profit of coal-fired plant could be maximised. Simulated annealing technique for optimisation has been used for maximisation of profit in terms of net present value (NPV) of complex coal fired power plant. At maximum NPV, the optimum numbers of redundancies on boiler sub-system, condensate extraction pump and boiler feed water pump are found to be one, three and one respectively.

Keywords: net present value; NPV; optimisation; simulated annealing technique; economic analysis; thermal power plant.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIE.2017.087625

International Journal of Intelligent Enterprise, 2017 Vol.4 No.3, pp.191 - 203

Received: 02 Feb 2016
Accepted: 13 Jun 2016
Published online: 30 Oct 2017 *

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