Calculation and Analysis of Energy Consumption Interactions in Thermal Systems of Large-scale Coal-fired Steam Power Generation Units

Fuel specific consumption theory was further developed with the proposal of a new approach to quantitatively calculate the auxiliary fuel specific consumptions within each device due to the imperfections of device structure and system topology design. Deep discussion on the interaction of exergy consumption was conducted by splitting it into three distinct sorts, the interactions among devices, the interaction between device and system and the reduction effects of some given device, to reveal various reasons for extra fuel consumption or lower energy conversion efficiency. Methods for the improvement of effective system design and strategies for the enhancement of the operation conditions and maintenance of the existing energy systems were brought about not from conventional but much novel perspectives. This advanced fuel specific consumption theory was then applied to a large-scale coal-fired supercritical power generation unit with the detailed calculation and comprehensive evaluation of the mentioned three sorts of energy consumption interactions, and provision of some beneficial retrofit suggestions for lowering the specific fuel consumption. The results show that this theory can provide guidelines for system design improvement, maintenance and retrofit, operation optimization from different aspects and various levels, and it has great potential to provide the effective cost-and-efficiency solutions for different energy conversion systems.