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Abstract: Steam turbines in solar thermal power plants experience a much greater number of starts than those operating in base-load plants. By maintaining higher internal temperature during idle periods, faster start-up times can be achieved, increasing the flexibility of the plant as well as increasing net electrical production. Prior work by the authors identified a number of methods for achieving this, with strong increases in daily production predicted; only two specific start-up cases were studied however. In order to obtain a more representative evaluation of the performance increase that can be achieved through increased dispatchability of the turbine, the annual improvement needs to be studied. Building on the existing results, a dynamic system model of a parabolic trough power plant has been established and used to determine the distribution of different cool-down times experienced throughout the year, with a view to evaluating the potential annual production increase. A modification of the start-up curves allows an increase in annual electrical production between 6.4% and 2.4% depending upon the operating mode (free operation versus day-time operation). Through application of a combination of heat blankets and an increase in gland steam temperature, further annual production increases between 2.2% and 3.1% are predicted. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Solar steam turbines are subject to high thermal stresses as a result of temperature gradients during transient operation, which occurs more frequently due to the variability of the solar resource. In order to increase the flexibility of the turbines while preserving lifting requirements, several operational modifications for maintaining turbine temperatures during offline periods are proposed and investigated. The modifications were implemented in a dynamic thermal turbine model and the potential improvements were quantified. The modifications studied included: increasing the gland steam pressure injected to the end-seals, increasing the back pressure and increasing the barring speed. These last two take advantage of the ventilation and friction work. The effects of the modifications were studied both individually as well as in different combinations. The temperatures obtained when applying the combined modifications were compared to regular turbine cool-down (CD) temperatures and showed significant improvements on the startup times of the turbine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Direct steam generation (DSG) is one alternative to the current oil-based parabolic trough solar thermal power plants. Within the German research project ITES, the dynamic behavior of a DSG collector field and the interactions with the conventional power block are assessed in detail. A transient solar field model developed by DLR is used to simulate the steam temperature behavior. Artificial irradiance disturbances as well as real irradiance data are used as input to the system. The resulting main steam temperature gradients are then analyzed by Siemens considering the standards for steam turbines. This paper presents the transient simulation results of the steam temperature as well as the corresponding results of the steam turbine analysis. It is found that the occurring temperature gradients are challenging for a safe turbine operation, if a conservative control system is used. Therefore, the use of an additional thermal inertia to stabilize the steam temperature is suggested. Its impact is also analyzed and discussed in this paper. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]