Development and Evaluation of Sustainable Technologies for Flexible Operation of Conventional Power Plants.

国家电网上存在的越来越多的可再生能源减少了由电力引起的CO2排放，但它们适合为化石燃料设计的电网。化石燃料可以随意开启和关闭，因此非常善于匹配负载的变化。风力涡轮机形式的可再生能源更具可变性（尽管这种可变性比大多数人想象的更容易预测），现有发电厂需要更灵活地运行，以适应风能，潮汐能和太阳能发电的变化。这项工作汇集了英国五所领先的大学和一些工业合作伙伴，使传统发电厂更加灵活。这项研究涵盖了广泛的活动，从详细分析发电站部件，以确定它们将如何应对负荷的巨大变化，一直到在国家层面上建立英国电网的模型，告诉我们传统发电厂需要提供的负荷变化。研究工作分为许多"工作包"每个大学共同负责的四个主要主题：保持工厂效率，提高工厂灵活性，提高燃料灵活性和实现可持续性。 剑桥大学将对湿蒸汽方法进行研究。水具有优良的传热性能，被用作电厂的工作流体。然而，在功率提取涡轮机的冷端，蒸汽开始凝结成水并且形成液滴，这在部分负载下尤其是一个问题。剑桥的工作将使这一过程得到更好的预测，并导致更好的设计。达勒姆大学将提供两个不同的工作包：整个英国电力系统的建模工作和世界上第一个动态控制间隙密封的介绍。建模工作将使工厂灵活性的要求能够准确地确定。与英国一家主要制造商联合开发的动态密封将使涡轮机在负载变化时保持性能。牛津大学-涡轮机设计的改进传热方法。这项工作的输出将是一个高度精确的耦合流体流动和传热计算，这将使设计人员能够更好地预测发电站内的热瞬变。利兹和爱丁堡大学将领导增加生物质燃料使用的工作。在利兹的建模工作将允许工厂运营商制定适当的措施，以尽量减少燃烧生物质对环境的影响。利兹和爱丁堡大学将有助于开发一个虚拟发电厂模拟工具这项工作作为不同的项目合作伙伴之间的桥梁，从达勒姆，剑桥，牛津和利兹生产的模型的输入相结合。该工具基于最新的研究成果，可用于优化瞬态操作，如快速启动和负载跟踪风力涡轮机输出变化。

The increasing amounts of renewable energy present on the national grid reduce C02 emissions caused by electrical power but they fit into an electrical grid designed for fossil fuels. Fossil fuels can be turned on and off at will and so are very good at matching variations in load. Renewable energy in the form of wind turbines is more variable (although that variability is much more predictable than most people think) and there is a need for existing power plants to operate much more flexibly to accommodate the changing power output from wind, tidal and solar power. This work brings together five leading Universities in the UK and a number of industrial partners to make conventional power plants more flexible. The research covers a wide range of activities from detailed analysis of power station parts to determine how they will respond to large changes in load all the way up to modelling of the UK electrical network on a national level which informs us as to the load changes which conventional power plants will need to supply.The research work is divided up into a number of "workpackages" for which each University is responsible together they contribute to four major themes in the proposal: Maintaining Plant Efficiency, Improving Plant Flexibility, Increasing Fuel Flexibility and Delivering Sustainability. Cambridge University will be conducting research into wet steam methods. Water is used as the working fluid in power plant as it has excellent heat transfer properties. However in the cold end of power extraction turbine the steam starts to condense into water and droplets form this is especially a problem at part load. The work at Cambridge will allow this process to be predicted better and lead to better designs. Durham University will contribute two different work packages: modelling work of the entire UK power system and the introduction of the world's first dynamically controlled clearance seal. The modelling work will enable the requirements for plant flexibility to be determined accurately. The dynamic seal developed in conjunction with a major UK manufacturer will allow the turbine to maintain performance as the load varies.Oxford University - Improved Heat Transfer Methods for Turbine Design. The output from this work will be a highly accurate coupled fluid flow and heat transfer calculations that will enable designers to better predict the thermal transients inside power stations. Leeds and Edinburgh University will lead work on increasing the use of biomass fuels. The modelling work at Leeds will allow plant operators to devise suitable measures to minimise the environmental impact of burning biomass.Leeds and Edinburgh University will contribute the development of a Virtual Power Plant Simulation Tool This work acts as a bridge between the different project partners as inputs from the models produced at Durham, Cambridge, Oxford and Leeds are combined. This tool based on the latest research findings can be used to optimize transient operations such as fast start-up and load following as wind turbine output varies.