Advanced electric power systems

Abstract

An identification and preliminary evaluation was made of alternative advanced electric power systems which have been suggested for possible future use by the American electric utility industry. The motivation for interest in advanced power systems stems primarily from the rapidly rising costs of clean fossil fuels, especially conventional fuel oil, and uncertainties of fuel supply. Four basic energy sources have been identified for prospective future American utility applications; namely, coal, nuclear, solar and geothermal. Each source must generally be subjected to extensive preprocessing before thermal energy can be delivered in a form useful to an electric power conversion system. Numerous candidate advanced energy conversion systems can be matched to the various energy sources, including steam, open cycle gas turbines, combined cycles, closed cycle gas turbines, MHD, fuel cells, liquid metal topping, supercritical carbon dioxide topping and others. Each has advantages and disadvantages which can be ranked and weighted numerically, based on our present knowledge. A tentative selection of promising combinations of energy sources and conversion systems has been made to focus attention on those which satisfy the socio-political requirements and also offer potential profit opportunities for suppliers to the electric utility industry.