Energy and exergy analysis of the 1220 MW natural gas-fired Hamitabat combined cycle power plant

Abstract

In this study, the energy and exergy analysis of the 1220 MW Hamitabat combined cycle power plant (CCPP) that was renovated in 2017 with a 520 million € project is carried out. A thermodynamic model is built by applying the conservation of mass and energy principles and operating data are obtained from the plant operators. Exergy analysis is performed with the exergy balance equation to determine the exergy efficiencies and improvement potentials of all components. Also, parametric analyses are carried out to investigate the methods to enhance the performance of the plant. The plant has thermal and exergy efficiencies of 59.70% and 58.52%, respectively and these values are 13.70% and 13.52% higher than the thermal and exergy efficiencies of the original plant, respectively. Results showed that the combustion chamber (CC) has the highest rate of exergy destruction, and it is responsible for 77.61% of the total irreversibilities. The improvement potential of the CC is found to be 67.992 MW, and the prevention of heat loss from CC can increase the thermal and exergy efficiencies of the plant by 3.88% and 3.80%, respectively. Parametric analyses showed that the plant performance can be enhanced by increasing the inlet temperatures of high- and intermediate-pressure turbines, and decreasing the pressures of condenser and high-pressure turbine.