Solar thermal plant has shown great promise to augment the thermal efficiency of the coal fired power plants and reducing CO2 emissions. In this paper, impact of utilizing solar heat for feed water heating in HP and LP heaters has been analysed using simulation studies. Two sets of configurations have been simulated. In the first scenario, the feed water is tapped from regenerative cycle loop and sent to solar field for steam generation and steam from the solar field is fed as extraction steam to one of the HP /LP heaters. In another scenario feed water is bypassed from the respective HP/LP heater and heated in the solar field to match the outlet temperature of the respective heaters. In both scenarios, the impact on net power output has been evaluated and pros and cons of the each case have been evaluated. Further the impact of variations in Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) throughout a day for a representative meteorological year on direct heating of feed water to first HP heater is evaluated and potential for CO2 emission reduction is evaluated.
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