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Under an award issued by the U.S. Department of Energy (DE-FE0031535), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is leading project to examine the technical and economic feasibility of a series of steam cycle upgrades to the two most prevalent types of U.S. coal power plants (including both subcritical and supercritical cycle configurations). The retrofit upgrade options are focused on evaluating increasing main steam and reheat steam temperatures from 1000�F (538�C) to hotter temperatures, ranging from ultra-supercritical (USC) (i.e., 1100�F or 593�C) to advanced USC (AUSC) conditions (?1300� or 704�C) while maintaining steam pressures at their original values. By maintaining the original operating steam pressures as well as the original boiler and furnace enclosure envelopes, we aim to minimize the modifications required to the existing power plant, while still providing a significant improvement in heat rate. A unique aspect of this study is that the economic value of the heat rate improvement of each technically feasible option will be determined by detailed modeling of unit dispatch, over the remaining future plant life, in several regional power markets, using EPRI?s US-REGEN model. The capital cost estimates will be compared to the increased revenue estimated by the dispatch modeling to determine the overall economic attractiveness of each upgrade option. The results of this study have the potential to be applicable at up to 80% of the existing U.S. coal-fired power generation fleet.<
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The project team, led by the Electric Power Research Institute, has completed the technical feasibility evaluation, and is currently executing the unit dispatch and capital cost evaluation portions of the work scope. This will describe the motivation for the project, explain the project?s structure and schedule, and provide details on the work scope and preliminary results of the technical feasibility evaluation.<
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