THERMAL TEST OF STEAM TURBINES: OBJECTIVES AND RESULTS

Abstract

One of the main NPP operation condition is maximum electricity production under constant reactor core thermal power with safety requirement implementation. It is necessary to carry out thermal tests of steam turbines. The objectives are to find out thermal efficiency reduction of equipment and reserves of electricity production. The important stage of thermal test data processing algorithm is to adjust mass and thermal balances over cycle arrangement of power unit. This is achieved by thermohydraulic model development of steam turbine cycle arrangement. The results of thermal tests show that electricity production reserves of NPPs under operation are from 6 – 8 MW(e) to 20 – 30 MW(e). The analysis shows that electricity production reserves are hidden in improvement of steam turbine condenser operation. The rejection of steam turbine condenser performance parameters defi nes main component of power production increasing. The course of thermal efficiency control level improvement of NPP power units is developing power unit mathematical models. These models must adjust characteristics of real equipment. The performance of these models is associated with comparison NPP performance parameters and models ones. When rejection is increasing over set margins the monitoring system is put into operation and show possible reasons of available rejection.