Modelling of the Whole Process of a University Campus CHP Power Plant and Dynamic Performance Study

Combined heat and power (CHP) refers to a process/system designed to utilize the waste or residual heat from a power generation process. Thus, a CHP plant can produce both electricity and heat. The nature of such a combination makes the process more complex than any single power generation process or boiler heating system. The paper focuses on modelling study and analysis of energy efficiency of the University of Warwick micro-CHP power plant. In this CHP modelling study, a gas turbine module is built to provide driving power and methane is used as fuel gas. Heat recovery system and auxiliary boiler modules are developed for thermal power generation. All the sub-systems are validated by comparing the simulation results with the operating data collected from the CHP plant. The dynamic performance of the key CHP process outputs is studied with respect to the variation of the input syngas stream, including electricity generation, thermal power output and water output temperature. Simplified controllers are also applied to the gas engineheat recovery subsystem and auxiliary boiler. Simulation results with/without feedback control are both analyzed. The study has highlighted the key factors which influence the plant performance and suggested the strategy for potential energy efficiency improvement.