Thermal power plant

Here fuel, air and water produce steam in the boiler by combustion. Mechanical energy is produced when the steam of high pressure and temperature are expanded from high pressure to low pressure in a turbine. A generator can be driven by this mechanical energy thus producing electricity. Thermal efficiency of a thermal power plant is the ratio of heat equivalent of mechanical energy transmitted to the turbine shaft and the heat of combustion. Generally this is around 30%. 16% loss is due to boiler house losses and some 54 % turbine losses. There are two types of thermal power plants- condensing and non-condensing. In condensing plant, the exhaust steam is discharged into a condenser where the condensation of steam into water is carried out since the pressure in the condenser is less than atmospheric pressure. In non-condensing plant, the steam exhausted from turbine is discharged at atmospheric pressure.