Modern Power Plant Control for Energy Conservation, Efficiency Increase, and Financial Benefit

Process control takes place in all power plants. The main task of all automatic controllers is to assure the optimal values of their controlled variables under all circumstances. The quality of operation of these controllers has evidently a crucial effect on the way of operation of the entire power plant. Whether a power plant – based on either renewable resources or fossil fuels – is operated in a highly effective way, or is a rather resource-consuming one, is evidently of very high importance regarding emissions and other ecological aspects. This fact is the reason for discussing in this chapter the possible ways for increasing the level of control quality in power plants.

An overview will be given at the beginning about the ways and tools the advanced control methods offer – in case of their more intensive applications in power plants – for protecting the environment and for mitigating the climate change. It will be followed by a concise but goal-oriented introduction of the most relevant control methods together with their evaluations regarding the aspects of their applicabilities in power plants. Because the way toward obtaining the environmental benefits offered by the advanced control methods is not a trivial one, some considerations, aspects, and hints will be given on this issue in the next part. A few successful power plant applications will be introduced afterward, and the actual main development directions will be outlined at the very end of this chapter.