Economic and exergoeconomic investigation of 660 MW coal-fired power plant

Abstract

This paper presents the economic and exergoeconomic analysis of the 660 MW coal-fired supercritical unit. The economic analysis is carried out using present worth method. The lifetime cost in terms of fuel, maintenance, insurance, labor, pumping, revenue generated, operating expenses, total capital investment and net present value is studied varying plant life, plant load and interest rate. In addition to economic analysis, exergoeconomic analysis is performed with specific exergy costing method. The payback period for supercritical power plant is evaluated to 4.5 years for 9% of interest rate and plant life of 30 years. The relative cost difference and exergoeconomic factor are studied for various components available in plant. This study reveals that steam generator exhibits maximum exergy destruction rate and capital cost. The present study also investigates the capital cost of the turbine can be reduced in the expense of exergetic efficiency. The exergoeconomic analysis reveals that performance of high-pressure heater 1 can be improved by reducing significant decrease in exergy destruction rate. The components with work as a input parameters show higher relative cost difference. The analysis is performed using the MATLAB programming environment. The outcomes of this study will help the researcher to develop the optimize economic analysis model of the upcoming power plants.