Dynamic performance and control strategy of steam generation system for ultra-rapid steam production in coal-fired power plant

Guangming Zhang, Kaijun Jiang, Qinghua Wang, Qiang Zhang, Jiyu Chen, Jinliang Xu and Yuguang Niu

Energy, 2025, vol. 320, issue C

Abstract: The coal-fired power plants (CFPPs) coupled with molten salt thermal energy storage (TES) system is a promising way to enhance the power grid peak shaving ability, which is significant to help the power grid absorb more renewable energy. Unlike the molten salt solar power tower plant, the molten salt TES system needs to generate hot steam from the standby state to 100 % thermal heat acceptance (THA) within several minutes. In this paper, a dynamic model for a molten salt TES system applied in the CFPP is established in the i-Calcu simulation platform. Besides, the control strategy of the steam generation system (SGS) for ultra-rapid steam production is proposed and configured in a distributed control system, which is linked with the simulation platform by real-time communication software. The dynamic performance of the SGS under three different ramp rates (6 %, 12 %, and 18 % Pe/min) is obtained. The results show that the mean absolute error (MAE) indexes of molten salt steam flow, steam pressure, and evaporator water level are 0.787 t/h, 0.033 MPa, and 3.294 mm, respectively, under the 18 % Pe/min ramp rate. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that the SGS with the proposed control strategies is robust for feedwater and molten salt inlet temperature disturbance. Finally, another simulation results show that with the SGS, the load response rate of the coal-fired unit increases from 2.11 % Pe/min to 2.76 % Pe/min, while the MAE indexes of the power load and main steam pressure decrease by 65.7 % and 34.7 %, respectively. This paper can provide a significant reference for the molten salt SGS involving the power grid peak shaving process.

Keywords: Molten salt; Thermal energy storage; Steam generation system; Peak shaving; Ramp rate; Coal-fired power plant (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:320:y:2025:i:c:s0360544225010102

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.135368

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