Techno-Economic Assessment of Coal-Fired Power Unit Decarbonization Retrofit with KP-FHR Small Modular Reactors

Łukasz Bartela, Paweł Gładysz, Charalampos Andreades, Staffan Qvist and Janusz Zdeb
Additional contact information
Łukasz Bartela: Department of Power Engineering and Turbomachinery, Silesian University of Technology, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
Paweł Gładysz: Faculty of Energy and Fuels, AGH University of Science and Technology, 30-059 Krakow, Poland
Charalampos Andreades: Kairos Power LLC, Alameda, CA 94501, USA
Staffan Qvist: Qvist Consulting Limited, London UB1 3EP, UK
Janusz Zdeb: Tauron Wytwarzanie S.A., 43-603 Jaworzno, Poland

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-25

Abstract: The near and mid-term future of the existing Polish coal-fired power fleet is uncertain. The longer-term operation of unabated coal power is incompatible with climate policy and is economically challenging because of the increasing price of CO 2 emission allowances in the EU. The results of the techno-economic analysis presented in this paper indicate that the retrofit of existing coal-fired units, by means of replacing coal-fired boilers with small modular reactors, may be an interesting option for the Polish energy sector. It has been shown that the retrofit can reduce the costs in relation to greenfield investments by as much as 35%. This analysis focuses on the repowering of a 460 MW supercritical coal-fired unit based on the ?agisza power plant design with high temperature small modular nuclear reactors based on the 320 MW th unit design by Kairos Power. The technical analyses did not show any major difficulties in integrating. The economic analyses show that the proposed retrofits can be economically justified, and, in this respect, they are more advantageous than greenfield investments. For the base economic scenario, the difference in NPV (Net Present Value) is more favorable for the retrofit by 556.9 M€ and the discounted payback period for this pathway is 10 years.

Keywords: supercritical steam cycles; retrofit decarbonization; small modular reactors; techno-economic assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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