The Future of Higher Steam Pressures in Steam Electric Generating Stations

Construction and operating experience has shown that a large part of the theoretically possible gains in efficiency due to higher steam pressures has been obtained in practise. What are the future possibilities of higher pressures? The biggest problem before station designers today is to reduce the cost of construction per unit of capacity. Some engineers have suggested that we should build cheaper and less economical stations. This is an unsatisfactory answer to the problem. The proper answer is to maintain the high standards of efficiency that have been established and reduce the cost of construction by intensive study and better design. Better engineering in the future is the answer to the problem. By the use of large turbine generator units and large steam generating units, the unit cost of construction can be reduced materially. The present practise of installing several boilers to serve one turbine generator increases the cost of construction. The use of large steam generating and turbine generator units will reduce the unit cost of high-pressure stations more than it will reduce the unit cost of normal pressure stations. If the steam generating units match the turbine generator units in capacity, we can design for unit construction. This unit construction will not only reduce the cost of construction but will also simplify operation.