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Steam Power Plant Control System

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 Steam Power Plant Control System

Based on internship experience at Shahid Salimi Neka power plant

Sep,2021

This article is an overview of different types of power plants,

design, steam cycle and especially steam power plant control
technology. First, a brief introduction to the basics and
components of the steam power plant is provided, followed
by some of the control systems in the power plant, diagrams
and their efficiency will be reviewed.

INTRODUCTION
The need for electricity is now felt in all stages of human life.
How electricity is generated
Electricity is produced when mechanical energy is harnessed
and used to rotate a turbine.
The mechanical energy to spin the turbine can come from a
variety of sources, including falling water, wind, or steam
from heat generated either by a nuclear reaction or by
burning fossil fuels.1
1
https://electricity.ca/
Types of Power Plants
Thermal Power Plant
Thermal power generation consists of using steam power
created by burning oil, liquid natural gas (LNG), coal, and
other substances to rotate generators and create electricity.

Nuclear Power Station

A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which
the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal
power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives
a steam turbine connected to a generator that
produces electricity.
Hydro-Electric Power Station
In Hydroelectric plants, the energy of the falling water is
utilized to drive the turbine which in turn runs the generator
to produce electricity.

Apart from these major types of power generations, we can

resort to small scale generation techniques as well, to serve
the discrete demands. These are often referred to as the
alternative methods or nonconventional energy of power
generation and can be classified as:

1. Solar power generation. (making use of the available

solar energy)
2. Geo-thermal power generation. (Energy available in the
Earth’s crust)
3. Tidal power generation.
 4. Wind power generation (energy available from the wind
turbines)2

The Steam Power Plant (Rankine cycle), which are

discussed in this paper is called THERMAL POWER PLANT,
because it converts heat into electric energy.

Steam Power Plant

A steam power plant consists of a boiler, a steam turbine, a

generator, and other auxiliaries. The boiler generates steam
at high pressure and high temperature. The steam turbine
converts the heat energy of steam into mechanical energy.
Steam power plants cycles
A steam power plant using steam as working substance
works basically on Rankine cycle.
Basic cycle description
Rankine cycles describe the operation of steam heat engines
commonly found in power generation plants as schematically
shown here in Fig. 1

Figure 1: Simple Rankine cycle.

2
electrical4u.com/power-plants-types-of-power-plant/
In such vapor power plants, power is generated by
alternately vaporizing and condensing a working fluid (in
many cases water, although refrigerants such as ammonia
may also be used)3
There are four processes in the Rankine cycle, each changing
the state of the working fluid. These states are identified by
number in Fig. 1.
• Process 1-2s: First, the working fluid is pumped (ideally
isentropically) from low to high pressure by a pump.
Pumping requires a power input (for example
mechanical or electrical).
• Process 2s-3: The high pressure liquid enters a boiler
where it is heated at constant pressure by an external
heat source to become a saturated vapor. Common heat
sources for power plant systems are coal, natural gas, or
nuclear power.
• Process 3-4s: The saturated vapor expands through a
turbine to generate power
output. Ideally, this expansion is isentropic. This
decreases the temperature and pressure of the vapor.
• Process 4s-1: The vapor then enters a condenser
where it is cooled to become a saturated liquid. This
liquid then re-enters the pump and the cycle repeats.4

3
Khalil, E.E., Power Plant Design, Gordon and Breach: New York, USA, 1990
4
R.S. Amano University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA B. Sundén Lund University, Sweden
Actual Rankine cycle
In actual situations, both the water pumps and the steam
Turbines do not operate isentropically and losses result in
more power demand for pumping and less power actually
generated by steam to blades.
The actual Rankine cycle is shown in Fig. 2.
Such losses are clearly shown in the following comparisons.
That is,
h3 – h4 < h3 – h4s and h2 – h1 > h2s – h1

Figure 2: Practical Rankine cycle

The performance of an actual turbine or pump is usually

expressed in terms of isentropic efficiency. The isentropic
efficiency of a turbine (ηT) is defined as the ratio of “work
delivered by the actual turbine” to “work delivered by an
isentropic turbine.”
ℎ3−ℎ4
T=ℎ3−ℎ4𝑠
The isentropic efficiency of a pump (ηP) is defined as the
ratio of “work required
by an isentropic pump” to “work required by the actual
pump.”5
ℎ2𝑠−ℎ1
p= ℎ2−ℎ1

Essentials of Steam Power Plant Equipment

1- A steam power plant must have following equipment:
A furnace to burn the fuel
2- Steam generator or boiler containing water. Heat
generated in the furnace is utilized to convert water
into steam.
3- Main power unit such as an engine or turbine to use the
heat energy of steam and perform work.
4- Piping system to convey steam and water.
In addition to the above equipment the plant requires
various auxiliaries and accessories
depending upon the availability of water, fuel and the service
for which the plant is intended.

The flow sheet of a thermal power plant consists of the

following four main circuits
1-Feed water and steam flow circuit.
2-Coal and ash circuit.
3-Air and gas circuit.
4-Cooling water circuit. 6
5
R.S. Amano University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA B. Sundén Lund University, Sweden

6
Souza GFM. Thermal Power Plant Performance Analysis. Heidelberg
Steam is generated in a boiler, expanded in the prime mover
and condensed in the condenser and fed into the boiler
again.
The different types of systems and components used in
steam power plant are as
follows:
1-High pressure boiler
2-Prime mover
3-Condensers and cooling towers
4-Coal handling system
5-Ash and dust handling system
6-Draught system
7-Feed water purification plant
8-Pumping system
9-Air preheater, economizer, super heater, feed heaters.7

Figure3: Steam Power Plant

7
A.K. Raja, A.P. Srivastava, and Manish Dwivedi, Power Plant Engineering
Figure 3 shows a schematic arrangement of equipment of a
steam power station.
Coal received in coal storage yard of power station is
transferred in the furnace by coal handling unit. Heat
produced due to burning of coal is utilized in converting
water contained in boiler drum into steam at suitable
pressure and temperature.
The steam generated is passed through the superheater.
Superheated steam then flows through the turbine. After
doing work in the turbine the pressure of steam is reduced.
Steam leaving the turbine passes through the condenser
which is maintained the low pressure of steam at the exhaust
of turbine.
Steam pressure in the condenser depends upon flow rate and
temperature of cooling water and on effectiveness of air
removal equipment. Water circulating through the condenser
may be taken from the various sources such as river, lake or
sea.
If sufficient quantity of water is not available the hot water
coming out of the condenser may be cooled in cooling towers
and circulated again through the condenser. Bled steam
taken from the turbine at suitable extraction points is sent to
low pressure and high pressure water heaters.
Air taken from the atmosphere is first passed through the air
pre-heater, where it is heated by flue gases. The hot air then
passes through the furnace.
The flue gases after passing over boiler and superheater
tubes, flow through the dust collector and then through
economiser, air pre-heater and finally they are exhausted to
the atmosphere through the chimney.
Steam condensing system consists of the following :
1-Condenser
2-Cooling water
3-Cooling tower
4-Hot well
5-Condenser cooling water pump
6-Condensate air extraction pump
7-Air extraction pump
8-Boiler feed pump
9-Make up water pump.8

Steam power plant control unit

As stated previously, the steam power plants are complex,
multivariable, and interactive processes, thus a well-designed
control system is required in the plants to ensure the correct
operation of the entire process, i.e., rapidly following the grid
load demand and controlling relevant process variables such
as: throttle pressure, superheater/reheater steam
temperature, furnace pressure, drum water level (subcritical
plant), etc., so that high efficiency, durability and safety can
be attained in the plant.

Boiler-Turbine Coordinated Control System

Current plant or unit control strategies allow generation of
the grid load demand while maintaining the balance among
the process variables within the unit.
Mainly, they match the boiler steam flow energy output to
the energy required by the turbine-generator to match the
unit load demand at all times.9
8
A.K. Raja, A.P. Srivastava, and Manish Dwivedi, Power Plant Engineering

9
Quazza G, Ferrari E. Role of power station control in overall system operation.
The coordinated control system (CCS) constitutes the
uppermost layer of the control system, and it is responsible
for driving the boiler-turbine-generator set as a single entity,
harmonizing the slow response of the boiler with the faster
response of the turbine, to achieve fast and stable unit
response during load tracking maneuvers and load
disturbances. 10

For the Steam Power Plant, power output and throttle

pressure are the two most important variables.
Externally, the power output reflects a balance between the
plant’s power generation and grid’s power demand;
internally, the throttle pressure naturally represents a
balance between the boiler’s energy supply and turbine’s
energy need11.

The dominant behavior of the unit is governed through the

power and pressure control loops. Therefore, the central task
of the CCS (coordinated control system)is to regulate the
power output to meet the demand of the grid while
maintaining the throttle pressure within agiven tolerance. 12
Evolved from multiple single-input single-output control loop
(decentralized) configurations based on PID control
algorithms, currently, there are two possible modes for
coordinated control: coordinated boiler-following (BF) mode
and coordinated turbine-following (TF) mode.13

10
. Flynn D, ed. Thermal Power Plant Simulation and Control. Stevenage, UK: IEE Press; 2003
11
Lindsey D. Power-Plant Control and Instrumentation: The Control of Boilers and HRSG Systems. Stevenage,
UK: IEE Press; 2000.
12
Russell T. Utility front end controls. Instrument Society of America, paper #88-0418, 113–122, 1988
13
Landis R, Wulfsohn E. The control philosophy for a unit control system for co-ordinated operation of a boiler
and turbine. Electron 1988, February:19–23
Boiler Following Mode (BF)
In boiler following mode, the boiler awaits the actions of the
turbine to match the requested generation. The turbine
control valves regulate the steam flow into the turbine in
terms of the power demand. Then, the boiler controls
respond to the changes in steam flow and pressure. (shown
in Fig4)1415

Figure4: Working Principle of the Coordinated BF mode (E0: load set-point; P0: main steam
pressure set-point; E: power output; PT: main steam pressure output; BD: boiler demand; TD:
turbine demand).

Turbine Following Mode (TF)

In the coordinated TF mode of control, the turbine follows
the actions of the boiler to match the requested generation.
The power demand is used by the combustion control at the
boiler to adjust the fuel and air into the furnace to modify the
steam production. Then the turbine controls respond by

14
Gery HC. The evolution of coordinated control. Instrument Society of America, paper #88-0417, 109–112,
1988.
15
Babcock & Wilcox. Chapter 41: Controls for fossil fuel-fired steam generating plants. In: Steam: Its
Generation and Use. 40th ed. New York: Babcock & Wilcox; 1992.
adjusting the throttle valve openings to keep the pressure at
the setpoint value. (Shown in Fig5)16

Figure5: Working Principle of the Coordinated TF mode (E0: load set-point; P0: main steam
pressure set-point; E: power output; PT: main steam pressure output; BD: boiler demand; TD:
turbine demand).

How to improve the performance of the CCS

To improve the performance of the CCS in both BF and TF
modes, the power demand is fed both to the boiler system
(BF) and turbine system (TF) (is shown as dotted-line in Figs 4
and 5), so that the large inertial behavior of boiler can be
partly compensated (in BF) and the turbine’s ability to
respond quickly can be utilized (in TF).17
However, the PI/ PID control systems, which are based on a
cascade of separate SISO loops, cannot fully account for the
interactions among the different process variables in the
16
Gery HC. The evolution of coordinated control. Instrument Society of America, paper #88-0417, 109–112,
1988
17
Xiao Wu,1 Jiong Shen,1 Yiguo Li1 and Kwang Y. Lee, Steam power plant configuration,
design, and control
nonlinear multi-input multi-output (MIMO) power plant.
Therefore, it is still very difficult for the classical CCS to
achieve a satisfactory control performance in both power
output and throttle pressure.
Combustion Control System
Under the CCS, the mission of the combustion system is to
provide enough thermal energy while guaranteeing the
efficient and safe operation of the boiler. Such requirements
are fulfilled by controlling relevant variables in the plant,
namely:
1- Fuel flow rate to maintain throttle pressure (in BF
mode) or electrical power output (in TF mode);
2- Excess air coefficient or optimal oxygen content in the
flue gases to ensure appropriate air flow rate;
3- Furnace pressure to guarantee the safety of the
boiler.18
The regulation of the above three variable can be achieved
through the manipulation of fuel feeders, forced draught (FD)
dampers and induced draught (ID) dampers, respectively,
resulting in three indivisible sub-regulators, i.e., the fuel
regulator, air regulator and pressure regulator as shown in
Figure 6, which form the combustion control system.19

18
Gilman GF, Boiler control system engineering, ISA, Research Triangle Park, USA, 2005
19
Lindsey D. Power-Plant Control and Instrumentation: The Control of Boilers and HRSG Systems. Stevenage,
UK: IEE Press; 2000.
 Figure6: Combustion control system (BD: boiler demand).

The task of the fuel regulator is to provide enough fuel to the

boiler so that the generated thermal energy can exactly
match the load demand. A cascade control strategy is usually
employed in this system, which is shown in the left part of Fig
7 for a BF mode plant.

Figure7: Three sub regulators of boiler combustion control system (P0: main steam pressure
set-point; PT: main steam pressure output; D: main steam flow rate; O2: oxygen content in
the flue gas; V: air flow rate; Pss: furnace pressure set-point; Ps: furnace pressure output; BD:
boiler demand).
Because the fuel flow rate, especially for the coal flow, is
difficult to measure, and the feeder speed signal cannot
reflect the variation of the heating value of the fuel, in most
of the steam power plants, the heat quantity signal M is used
in the inner loop to rapidly deal with any disturbances due to
the variation of the fuel in heating values. The heat quantity
signal can be estimated through the equation
M = D + Cbdpb∕dt
where, D is the steam flow rate representing the heat
absorbed by the working substance, and Pb is the drum
pressure representing the heat stored in the boiler, Cb is the
heat storing coefficient of the boiler.
The air regulator is used to guarantee the efficiency of the
combustion; to be specific, guarantee a suitable ratio
between the amounts of fuel and air being supplied to the
furnace.
An undersupply of the air will prevent the fuel from complete
burning; in contrast an oversupply of the air will absorb heat
and thus increase the heat waste in the exhaust gas. In
practice, a certain amount of excess air is needed rather than
keeping the fuel/air ratio at the stoichiometric value.
Since the fuel flow rate has already been determined by the
fuel regulator, it is direct to design a ratio controller to keep
the air flow rate matching the fuel flow rate. However,
considering that the heating value of the fuel can vary from
time to time, it is a challenge to set the ratio co-efficient in
operation; therefore, the oxygen content in the flue gas is
measured which can reflect the combustion condition
directly, regardless of the fuel variation.
A classic air regulator using the oxygen content signal is
illustrated in the middle part of Fig 7. It is a cascade control
system. The inner loop receives the fuel signal and air signal
to attain a basic fuel/air ratio and the outer loop receives the
oxygen content signal and compare it with the optimal
oxygen content value (which is calculated offline for a given
load) to achieve a tight control of the air input.
The task of the pressure regulator is to maintain the furnace
pressure close to the atmospheric pressure; so that the
hazardous gases escaping and cool air entering the boiler can
be prevented. Usually,furnace pressure is required to be
maintained at 20–50 Pa below the atmospheric pressure.
Such a task is achieved by the use of feedforward-feedback
control system as shown in the right part of Fig 7.20
Feedwater Control System
The objective of the feedwater control is to supply enough
water to the boiler to match the evaporation rate. For the
subcritical plant, because the separation of steam from water
always happens at the drum,maintaining the drum level
naturally represents the balance between the feedwater
supply and steamgeneration.

20
Babcock & Wilcox. Chapter 41: Controls for fossil fuel-fired steam generating plants. In: Steam: Its
Generation and Use. 40th ed. New York: Babcock & Wilcox; 1992.
Controlling the drum water level within a given
tolerance is important for the safe operation of the
plant: a high level will increase the risk of water being
carried over into the steam circle, which may not
only lead to a fluctuation of steam temperature, but
also cause fouling and damage of the superheaters;
conversely, a low level will cause the waterwall piping
to be damaged from insufficient cooling. Both can
result in catastrophic failures.21
The drum water level is determined by both the
volume of the water in the drum and the volume of
the steam bubbles under the water level. Thus, the
drum water level can be influenced by feedwater flow
rate, steam flow rate, heat quantity generated from
combustion and many other variables, and its control
presents a complex problem due to the large inertia
behavior of these disturbances and a ‘swell and shrink’
effect.
For these reasons, a three-element cascade controller is
typically used in the plant, which is illustrated in Fig8. The
steam flow rate signal D is used as the feedforward signal;
such a design can make the feedwater flow rate respond
quickly to the variation of the steam flow rate, thus avoid the
effect of ‘swell and shrink’. The feedwater flow rate signal is
used to form the inner loop of the control system and a
secondary controller is designed for a quick rejection of the
disturbance inside the feedwater system. The drum water
21
Fei W, Li Y, Shen J, Xiang X. Optimization of superheated steam temperature control system using
extremum seeking algorithm. J Southeast Univ 2010, 40:952–956.
level H is finally fed back to the primary controller for an
accurate regulation.22

Figure8: Three elements cascade feedwater control system for a drum type boiler (Δp is the
differential pressure transmitter; √ is the square root extractor; aw, aD are the sensitive
coefficients of feedwater flow rate and steam flow rate signals; Kz is the actuator of the
feedwater flow control valve).

Steam Temperature Control System

Superheater steam temperature (SST) and Reheater steam
temperature (RST) are two of the most critical variables to be
controlled in a steam power plant.
They must be tightly controlled within a small range, as
shown in Fig 9, for the following safety and economy
reasons:

22
Gilman GF, Boiler control system engineering, ISA, Research Triangle Park, USA, 2005.
 1- Excessively high temperature will lead to material
damage on the superheater/reheater steam pipes at
the inlet of the turbine;
2- Lower temperature will reduce the efficiency of the
plant, moreover, it will build up the steam humidity in
the rear of the low pressure turbine that would erode
the turbine blades;
3- Large temperature variation will increase the thermal
stress of the piping material and magnify the variations
of the air gap between rotor
and stator of the turbine, thus threatening the safety of
the plant.23
For the subcritical plant, there are many factors that will
influence the SST: mostly the rate of the steam flow, heat
transfer from flue gas and the rate of spray water flow.

Figure9: Operation regions of superheater steam temperature (T_sp is the temperature set-
point and the numbers represent temperature deviations in Celsius degree)

23
Murray-Smith R, Johansen TA. Multiple Model Approaches to Modeling and Control. London, UK: Taylor &
Francis; 1997.
For the subcritical plant, there are many factors that will
influence the SST: mostly the rate of the steam flow, heat
transfer from flue gas and the rate of spray water flow. The
first two have a relatively quick influence on the SST while
the spray water’s influence is quite slow.
However, during the operation, the steam flow rate has to
match the load demand; the regulation of heat transfers (for
example, the burner tilt or the gas recirculation) will
influence the efficiency and security of combustion.
Therefore, the spray water flow becomes the only variable to
control the SST and the cascade control system is generally
employed, which uses an inner loop to handle the large
inertia property.24
A classical SST control system is shown in Fig 10.

Figure10: Classical cascade SST control in steam power plants (T1 is final steam
temperature; T2 is the steam temperature signal immediately after the attemperation; 𝛾T1 and
𝛾T2 are the temperature transmitters; K z is the actuator of the attemperator valve)

24
Chang J, Lee KY, Garduno-Ramirez R. Multiagent control system for a fossil-fuel power unit. In: 2003 IEEE
Power Engineering Society General Meeting, Toronto, Canada, July 13–17, 2003
The inner loop receives the steam temperature signal T2
immediately after the attemperation, which is required to
reject the temperature disturbances originating upstream as
well as the self disturbance in the spray water. The inner loop
is, of course, much faster than the outer loop, which receives
the final steam temperature signal T1 to achieve an accurate
control performance.
For the steam power plant, the regulation capability for the
spray water is very limited, and the superheater steam
temperature is mainly controlled by regulating the
fuel/feedwater ratio. The steam temperature/enthalpy out of
the separator is first controlled by keeping the feedwater
flow rate matching the fuel flow rate; spray water is then
used for a tighter control of the superheater steam
temperature.
The control of the reheater steam temperature is mainly
attained by regulating the dampers that control the flow of
the flue gases across the reheater tube banks. The spray
water is only used in emergency case, because it will reduce
the amount of steam which expands in the high pressure
turbine and will reduce the efficiency of the whole plant.
The conventional PI/PID based control system has been
successful in steam power plants and are very reliable, but
the conventional PI/PID strategies are no longer sufficient in
meeting performance specifications because of the
drawbacks such as:
1- The main drawback of the PI/PID control systems,
based on separate single-input, single-output (SISO)
 loops, is that they do not account for the interactions of
the different thermal properties in the plant.
2- In general, the PI/PID controller parameters are
optimized at a given operating point and then
fixed. Therefore, when wide-range load following is
required for the steam power plants, the performance
of the plant operation is decreased because the
nonlinearity becomes significant.
3- The PI/PID controllers are not possible to handle the
constraints of manipulated variables in the controller
calculation stage, thus even when the controller
parameters are well tuned, the performance is still
decreased when physical limitations (both magnitude
and rate) of the valves are involved. This may also cause
the integral windup when a sharp change of the power
demand occurs.25
Therefore, a migration from classical PI/PID based control
system to new concepts based on advanced control
techniques in steam power plants will take place in a
foreseeable future.

25
Babcock & Wilcox. Chapter 41: Controls for fossil fuel-fired steam generating plants. In: Steam: Its
Generation and Use. 40th ed. New York: Babcock & Wilcox; 1992.

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