Efficiency of Thermal Power Plant

Efficiency of Thermal Power Plant

  • The efficiency of a Rankine cycle is usually limited by the working fluid. Without the pressure reaching super critical levels for the working fluid, the temperature range the cycle can operate over is quite small: turbine entry temperatures are typically 565°C (the creep limit of stainless steel) and condenser temperatures are around 30°C. This gives a theoretical Carnot efficiency of about 63% compared with an actual efficiency of 42% for a modern coal-fired power station.
  • The power output or capacity of an electric plant can be expressed in units of megawatts electric (MWe).