Implications of a state-space approach for the economic optimal design of a NGCC power plan.

Abstract

A detailed state-space approach is here embedded in the optimization model for the economic design of a new natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power plant. This proposal comprehensively quantifies the impact of different adopted values for two critical parameters: the number of simultaneously and independently failed components, and the number of simultaneous events. The former depicts the maximum number of components (gas turbines, steam turbine, HRSGs, auxiliary services, etc.) that seem feasible to fail because of independent causes at the same time. The latter describes the maximum number of transitions between operating conditions, which is directly linked to the amount of available maintenance resources (personnel, parts, etc). Implications of a wide array of values for these two parameters over the economic optimal solutions are thoroughly discussed, where it is observed that more accurate and detailed estimations of the expected economic performance for the project are attained.