Modernization and expansion of an existing electric power plant

When modernizing or expanding a power plant, a thorough review should be made of the entire system regarding present and future requirements. The focus should be on obtaining a more economical, flexible, and reliable system. In this paper, a comprehensive study to modernize and expand an existing power plant is presented. The study is based on: part of the system is relatively new and still has a long service life that doesn´t need to be modernized, old and obsolete units to be replaced with new units that solves the problem of meeting the load demand and spinning reserve, higher level of voltages to be used in generation to reduce the short circuit currents and reduce expenditures on protection equipment, and new design is based on the possibility that there will be other future expansions. Computer programs are used to perform power flow studies, short circuit current calculation, system protection coordination, and stability analysis on the system before and after modifications. The results are analyzed and used to recommend a more economical, reliable, and safe system that can meet the load demand, provides the needed spinning reserve of the plant, and give the provision of future load increases