Location: Located away from heavily populated areas. Nuclear Power Plant Principle of operation: Thermonuclear fission. People in the region have to be relocated. Can be started instantly.Įnvironmental Considerations: Affects marine life. Start-up Power: 0.5% to 1% of unit capacity. It is located in remote areas, away from load centers. Transmission and Distribution Cost: High.
Running Costs: Zero, because no fuel is needed. Construction of a dam and reservoir is expensive. A dam is huge.Īvailability of Fuel: Availability of water is unreliable because it depends on the weather (rainfall.) Requirement of Space: Very large space required. Usually in a hilly area at high altitude. Location: Located where a large amount of water can be collected easily in a reservoir by constructing a dam. Hydroelectric Power Plant Principle of operation: Potential energy of water is converted to Kinetic energy and used to rotate a turbine. Smoke and ash are produced.Įnvironmental Considerations: Air pollution occurs and leads to acid rain. Boiler flame has to be kept burning, so some amount of coal is used constantly, even when the turbine is not in operation.Ĭleanliness: Less clean.
Standby Losses: More than hydroelectric and nuclear power plants. Start-up Power: About 10% of unit capacity. Running Costs: Higher than Hydroelectric and Nuclear power plants. Initial Cost of Plant: Lower than Hydroelectric and Nuclear power plants. Coal is heavy and has to be transported to the plant. However, coal is non-renewable and limited.Ĭost of Fuel: High. (30%-32%)Īvailability of Fuel: Coal reserves are present all over the world. Requirement of Space: Need a large space due to coal storage, turbine, boiler and other auxiliaries.Įfficiency: Overall efficiency is least compared to other plants. Location: It is located at a site where coal, water and transportation facilities are available easily. Principle of operation: It works on Modified Rankine Cycle. However, they represent only a small part of the global scheme in terms of capacity and utilization. Thermal Power Station (Steam power plant).On the basis of this form of energy conversion, power plants are broadly classified as follows: Such a power plant will convert one form of energy (nuclear, thermal, hydro, solar etc.) to electrical energy. A set of equipments utilized to produce electrical power in large quantities (usually hundreds - thousands of MW) is called a generating station or a power plant. The generation aspect is at the foremost of the chain and it is realized with the help of power plants. However, electrical energy can be considered as the most important of these since we can generate, transmit, distribute, convert and utilize it efficiently and economically. We need energy for all our activities, and we utilize this energy in various forms such as thermal, electrical, mechanical etc. Modern society cannot function without a reliable power system.