An Assessment Method of Power Plants Using Genetic Algorithms

The performance assessment of power plants is a complex task, which involves many calculations. Increasing the number of plant components with the introduction of new technologies available in the international market, it increases the complexity of performance analysis of power cycles. The present paper describes a process for optimising a conventional gas turbine combined cycle power plant. In this paper the method of assessing thermal power plants takes into account the exergy method and carries out along with optimisation of the whole plant based on maximising overall plant exergetic efficiency and minimising energy loss rejected to the atmosphere. The performance assessment of power plants using the exergy method considers the overall plant exergetic efficiency and the exergy destruction in the various components of the plant. The exergy method highlights irreversibility within the plant components, and it is of particular interest in this investigation. Due to the large number of equations with many variables taking part in the whole calculation and also considering constraints imposed to some variables, a genetic algorithm is recommended as the optimisation tool for the assessment method. Genetic Algorithms are adaptive methods which may be used to solve search and optimisation problems. They are based on the genetic processes of biological organisms. Over many generations, natural populations evolve according to the principles of natural selection and “survival of the fittest”, first clearly stated by Charles Darwin in his book “The Origin of Species”. Genetic algorithms do not require complicate mathematical calculations like the evaluation of derivatives necessary to be considered in conventional optimisation techniques.