An innovative optimization technique on performance efficiency verification in a coal thermal power plant unit

Coal thermal power plant, like most power plants is constructed solely for electricity generation. More explicitly, routine energy efficiency interventions are carried out in a unit of the power plant to ensure that it continues to operate at optimal performance as per the manufacturer rating. The study focused on the development and building of a multiple linear regression model for the power generated in a unit of the coal thermal power plant; with air heater temperature, main super heater steam temperature, high pressure heater temperature, condenser well temperature, and mass of coal burnt as the predictors. The model was developed using three months after outage as well as three months data after a year of the intervention from open literature. An optimization technique known as the constraint linear least square regression was applied in computing the optimal input data set corresponding to a desired response, whereby the mathematical model equation was used as the constraint equation. The benefits of the optimization technique were to enable the plant engineers to schedule a service plan on the unit. This was done with respect to the specific components of the unit observed to be under performing by judging from the final results after running the optimization. Based on the number of predictors showing a significant difference between the actual and the optimized data set, the maintenance can be termed minor or major intervention.