Exergetic evaluation and optimization of combined heat and power (CHP) plant of 20.7 MW capacities under varying load conditions: A case study

The main aim of this paper is to find the effect of power to heat ratio on exergy of Combined Heat and power (CHP) systems used in power plants. Lot of Energy Researchers have investigated and published their work in terms of energy efficiency and its parametric characteristics. But from a thermodynamic point of view it is Exergy and not Energy, which reveals a more meaningful performance of CHP system. In the present work a case study of a CHP system of 20.7 MW capacities is considered and analyzed based on varying load conditions as well as based on Exergy, based on experimental data taken from the plant. For 100 % PLF the optimum value of PHR in terms of TExDR and SSC is 0.546. Exergy analysis reveals that with a decrease in the value of PLF (plant load factor) the optimum value of PHR (power to heat ratio) also reduces. © 2019 International Information and Engineering Technology Association. All rights reserved.