Exergoeconomic analysis and performance assessment of selected gas turbine power plants

In this study, exergoeconomic analysis and performance evaluation of selected gas turbine power plants in Nigeria were carried out. The study was conducted using operating data obtained from the power plants to determine the exergy efficiency, exergy destruction, unit cost of electricity and cost of exergy destruction of the major components of a gas turbine engine in the selected power plants. The results of exergy analysis confirmed that the combustion chamber is the most exergy destructive component compared to other cycle components as expected. The total efficiency defects and overall exergetic efficiency of the selected power plants vary from 38.64 to 69.33% and 15.66 to 30.72% respectively. The exergy analysis further shows that the exergy improvement potential of the selected plants varies from 54.04 MW to 159.88 MW. The component with the highest exergy improvement potential is the combustion chamber and its value varies from 30.21 MW to 88.86 MW. The results of exergoeconomic analysis show that the combustion chamber has the greatest cost of exergy destruction compared to other components. Increasing the gas turbine inlet temperature (GTIT), both the exergy destruction and the cost of exergy destruction of this component were found to decrease. The results of this study revealed that an increase in the GTIT of about 200 K can lead to a reduction of about 29% in the cost of exergy destruction. From exergy costing analysis, the unit cost of electricity produced in the selected power plants varies from cents 1.99 /kWh (N3.16 /kWh) to cents 5.65 /kWh (N8.98 /kWh).