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Knowing the true cost of power is very important to improving the company’s bottom and operation efficiency.
The power we use has both economic and social impacts and to understand the true cost of power we need to dig deep into both of them.

Cost of power generation:
There are many ways to generate power, mainly hydropower, nuclear power, solar wind, and thermal power plants. Out of these main categories, thermal power plants are the most popular and have the highest market share among the others. Most thermal power plants work on the Rankine cycle. The fuel such as coal and natural gas is burned into the boiler. The boiler generates high pressure and superheated steam. Steam is further passed through a steam turbine to generate the power. Owing to the intrinsic limited efficiency of the Rankine Cycle, only about 30% of Energy generated by burning the fuel is converted into Electrical Power.
per kW of power generated majorly depends on
Fixed costs (FC), mainly interest, depreciation, insurance, and taxes, depending on the capital invested, i.e. on the construction costs of the plant including the cost of the land.
Operation and maintenance (O & M) cost cover salaries and wages, overhauling of equipment, repairs including spare parts, water, lubricating oil, chemicals, and miscellaneous expenses.
Fuel costs, depend on the amount of electricity generated. Cost also varies with the quantity of fuel, source of fuel, and availability of fuel. Apart from capital expenditure on the infrastructure and capital equipment the consumption of fuel accounts for more than 50% of the power plant operating cost.

Cost of distribution:
Usually, Power is generated at a centralized location and transmitted via Grid to the industry. Power distribution requires a huge network of wire/cable of several hundred kilometers along with many distribution stations. developing this infrastructure is very capital intensive. Up to 20% of this power (ie. 6% of the Energy in Coal) is lost as Transmission and Distribution losses, thus only about 24% of Energy reaches the consumption point. The remaining 76% is dumped as Heat into the atmosphere adding to Global Warming.

As an industrialist, we can reduce the cost of power by generating our own power at the site ( near to the point of consumption) which almost eliminates the capital infrastructure cost of the power distribution network and also minimizes the distribution losses. In case of Cogeneration, both Heat and Power are generated from a single primary source of Fuel. The exhaust heat from the Cogeneration Power Plant can be utilized in the process of heating the industry and the Power is consumed locally. The system efficiency of the Cogeneration Power Plant thus reaches as high as 84%, compared to just 24% of Centralised Power Plant.

Generating power at the site through waste heat or instead of the PRS system is the best option to reduce the cost of power and increase the process efficiency.
On-site power generation reduces the waste heat dumped into the atmosphere. Which in turn reduces the global warming effect by almost 70% as compared to the conventional centralized power generation.

Blog ~
Role of Steam Turbine in Energy Conservation

The global energy landscape will change more in the next 10 years than in the previous hundred. As the world’s energy sector moves away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy sources, industrial companies are challenged with addressing this transition in transformative ways.
Digitization will be key to making power-generating assets more efficient, the electric grid more secure and resilient, the aviation industry more sustainable, and helping manufacturers reduce waste.

Energy conservation means the efforts made to reduce the consumption of energy by using less energy. This can be achieved either by using energy more efficiently or by reducing the amount of service used. Energy can be conserved by reducing wastage and losses, improving efficiency through technological upgrades, and improving operation and maintenance. Steam Turbine is one of the best options to conserve energy in industries where steam is used in the processes industries like a distillery, sugar, paper, Dairy plants, oils and refineries, Textiles, Edible oil, and many more industries.

A steam turbine is an equipment that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft and generates power. Steam turbines play a very important role in energy conservation. With the help of a steam turbine, waste energy can be harnessed. Due to steam turbines, the overall efficiency of the process increases. It will help to reduce the production cost. Because of energy conservation, there will be less waste of energy. Hence with the help of a steam turbine maximum amount of energy can be conserved.
Turtle Turbines manufactures exceptionally reliable steam turbine Generators with highest efficiency in their class at lowest ownership cost. The products can generate power at 25% of the grid power cost.
Turtle Turbines supplies steam turbines from the range of 100kW to 3000kW within India and abroad. For more information please visit www.turtleturbines.com

Steam Turbine is the most valuable and essential equipment in sugar, distillery, food industry, Edible oils, Paper Industry, Dairy plants, Cement plants and many more industries. Because it’s a power generating equipment and its better to operate than other power generating equipment. It can generate power within lowest cost as compared to other sources.
However, pressure on the energy industry increases. As prices increases and the focus on sustainable grows, industry owners/players are starting to find leverage solutions. And also strategies that would help them to reduce their steam turbine outage costs. And increase steam turbine life cycle.
Following are the some valuable strategies that can help you to reduce your steam turbine outage costs.

1. Keep control systems failure free and maintained.
   A good control system can increases reliability, reduce maintenance and improve diagnostics and employ more precise control on steam turbines.
2. Keep spares in stocks.
   Keep Consumable spares and essential required spares in stock so that it can save the time and also power cost in the period of failure of this spares, turbine will run within short time after replacement. Maintain Consumable and critical spares on periodically basis.
3. Take spares from OEM only.
   The spares taken from OEM are genuine, quality spares which enhances the operational reliability of the steam turbine as they are manufactured to quality standards. Because the quality and inspection processes applicable to spares are same as that of turbine manufacturing process to ensure consistently high quality.
4. Do preventive maintenance –
   It is the predetermined periodic based maintenance activity. In that, Steam turbine is taken offline, opened up and inspected. After visual inspection repairs are made and machine will put back online. In this type of maintenance replacement, overhauling and remanufacturing activities is done at fixed periodic intervals regardless of machine condition at the time.
5. Do sceduled maintenance.
   In scheduled maintenance steam turbine bearings and Seals should be physically inspected every quarter or years. This entails opening the bearing housings, removing and inspecting the bearings and Seals and replacing any components as needed. Scheduled maintenance generally done during a planned shutdown.

Turtle Turbine Manufactures the steam turbines ranges from 50kW to 3000kW and also provides spares of high quality standards. For more information please visit on www.turtleturbines.com.

Turtle Turbines is one of the most reputed Steam Turbine Manufacturers In India.

In steam turbines lubrication system plays a very important role. Lubricating oil systems generally serve the turbine and its driven object in ways other than supplying oil to the bearings. Most turbines have hydraulic control systems that use lubricating oil as the working fluid and lubricating system pressure as the actuating force. Steam turbines cannot operate without lubrication. Therefore, a turbine lubricating oil system must be designed, operated, and maintained for extreme reliability.
In steam turbines, the lubricating oil system affects overall facility loss prevention more than the mechanical system. The lubrication oil system contained combustible liquid under pressure. The lubrication oil system is designed in a way to minimize the fire hazards presented. In most cases, a good fire protection design would also include shutting of the oil supply if a fire starts. Since shutting of the oil supply could cause the mechanical destruction of the turbine unit, the design of the associated fire protection system must reflect the fact that lubricating oil system operation must continue until the turbine unit goes down.
Each steam turbine has lubricating oil systems that are independent of any other unit. A steam turbine lubricating oil system is designed to supply clean oil at the correct temperature and pressure to all bearings, control equipment, and Seals under adverse condition that results in the largest drop in the system pressure. These three conditions can be considered, failure of any single bearing and rupture of any external line or component in the control oil system. Failure of any single seal. To prevent these events from causing serious additional damage may require limited line sizes, orifice plates, or needle valves to distribute flow in service and to limit the system pressure drop produced by a component failure.
The system reservoir should be large enough to supply oil to bearings under any above conditions for at least twice the unit coastdown time from its maximum operating speed.
Steam turbine subject to damage from coastdown without lubrication requires a backup or emergency lubrication source. The backup source should be starting automatically if the normal source fails. Provide oil to the bearings in case of a crash shutdown. Operate independently of the normal facility of electrical supply.

In case of minimum duration of supply for the backup or emergency oil source may require a further extension to include the time necessary to isolate and depressive the machine after shutdown. A steam turbines unit with a forced lubrication system required the following features,
Low lubrication pressure alarm and unit shutdown.
High lubrication temperature alarm.
Oil reservoir low-level alarm.
Backup and emergency lubrication source running alarm.
High oil filters differential alarm.
Locked or plugged oil reservoir drains.
Hence Lubrication oil system installation in steam turbines are very essential to run the steam turbine smoothly. For more information please visit www.turtleturbines.com

Turtle Turbines is one of the most reputed Steam Turbine Manufacturers In India.

Steam Turbines are used for many applications for Power Generation in Power Plants, Combine Power and Heat applications, Co-generation, etc. Depending upon the power requirements steam parameters and boiler specifications are decided. Boilers are available at various pressures like Critical Pressure, High Pressure, Medium Pressure, and Low Pressure.

In process industries steam is used for heating at low pressure, accordingly, the low or medium pressure Boiler is selected. The low-pressure Boilers are usually ranging from 10.5 kg/cm² (g) to 28 kg/cm² (g) and Dry and Saturated steam.

For the low-pressure saturated steam boilers, power generation with a Low-Pressure Steam Turbine can be possible. Since the steam is available in dry & saturated conditions the design of turbine or power generation potential should be done cautiously. In such conditions, more care should be given to moisture content or steam quality than aiming for maximum possible power generation.

Turtle Turbines have been designed as per API and successfully installed many low-pressure steam turbines (vaporpower) on dry & saturated steam and which are generating power without any interruption.

Turtle Turbines is one of the most reputed Steam Turbine Manufacturers In India.

Purchasing of capital equipment is considered as a fixed asset, thus steam turbine, to be capitalized and depreciated over the period of the economic life of the equipment. Since the steam turbine is such capital equipment that pays you back by generating power continuously, hence it’s should be bought cautiously to ensure it’s a long operation without much interruption.

Steam turbines are sandwiched between boiler and process on the steam side and between grid, DG power, and other sources on the electrical side. Its cost is not only limited to product cost but other investments on steam piping, its accessories, cabling, panels, and civil work are also associated with it. Hence success or failure of Steam Turbine also wins or fails the other investment which can be called a life cycle cost.

The operation and maintenance cost of the turbine needs to be taken into consideration while Purchasing a Steam Turbine. Cost of Spares and Services is a recurring cost and thus is very important over the entire life of the Steam Turbine. Some Steam Turbines require Turbine Operators or Attendants 24 X 7 and some are well designed to operate in an Automated Control System. It is always preferable to consider the cost of Operation while making decisions on a particular make of Steam Turbine. In absence of such wholistic considerations, the Purchase decision may result in short-term benefits but recurring losses over the life of the Steam Turbine.

Turtle Turbines considers not only the initial cost of the Steam Turbine but the entire Product Life Cost of the Turbine as its primary design criterion.

Turtle Turbines is one of the most reputed Steam Turbine Manufacturers In India.

Process Industries like Chemical, Distillery, Paper Mill and Dairy require low-pressure steam for heating applications. Hence low to medium pressure boilers are used in the process industry for generating steam.

“For heating always dry and saturated steam is required”. From a Medium or High-pressure boiler steam is passed through Pressure Reducing Valve and De-Superheater to provide at required process pressure. There is considerable heat or enthalpy loss that occurs at PRV in pressure reducing process.

A micro or a Back Pressure Steam Turbine can be installed to recover this loss happening in the PRV. Turtle Turbines has supplied many turbines which are generating power in 18 different types of the industry across many regions in the world.

For the successful installation of Steam Turbines, proper Application engineering, knowledge of the process, Turbine design for dry and saturated steam turbines, and study of steam and plant electrical load are the key points.

Turtle Turbines is one of the most reputed Steam Turbine Manufacturers In India.

In general, compressors for plants are driven by steam turbines, which convert steam energy to rotational energy by means of rotor blades. Unlike the turbines used for power generation, which rotate at a constant speed, these turbines can be operated at variable speeds.
Steam Turbines are well suited as a prime mover for driving boiler feedback pumps, forced or induced-draft fans, blowers, air compressors, and other rotating equipment. This service generally goes with the back-pressure noncondensing steam turbines. The low-pressure steam turbine exhaust is available for Feedwater heating, preheating of deaerator makeup water, and/or process requirements. In operations where it is possible to reduce the steam pressure to a lower level, it may be advantageous to run the turbine in basic operation, thereby reducing the power consumption.
Drive Steam Turbines are equipped with throttling valves or nozzle governors to balance steam flow and achieve variable speed operation. Thus, the steam turbine is very much capable just like serving the same function as an induction motor coupled to an inverter or adjustable speed drive. Drive Steam Turbine does not fail when overloaded and can operate over a wide speed range. They also give high starting torque required for constant torque loads such as positive displacement pumps.
Steam Turbines are inherently rugged and reliable low-maintenance devices. They are easy to control and offer enclosed, non-sparking operations suitable for use in explosive atmospheres or highly corrosive environments. Steam turbine drives may be installed for continuous duty under severe operating conditions, or used for load shaping (eg. Demand limiting) , standby, or emergency service. Steam turbines provide fast, reliable starting capability and are particularly adaptable for direct connection to equipment that rotates at high speed.
Equipment redundancy and improved reliability can be obtained by mounting a steam turbine drive and electric motor on opposite ends of the driven-equipment shaft. You can then select either motor or turbine as the prime mover by increasing or decreasing the turbine speed relative to the synchronous speed of the motor.

Turtle Turbines is one of the most reputed Steam Turbine Manufacturers In India.

Extraction Back Pressure Steam turbines are used when steam at two different process pressures is required. In Extraction Back Pressure Steam Turbines the required Steam for the process at required pressures is supplied through Extraction openings and turbine exhaust while generating power in the process.
Electric output is dependent on the demand for process steam. If required double or multiple steam extraction at different temperatures and pressures for plant processes can be supplied through extraction openings, however, such turbines are complex and rarely used. An Extraction Back Pressure turbine has opened in its casing for extraction of steam at the desired pressure. The extracted steam may be used for process purposes. Automatically regulated depends on the steam turbine design. Regulated Extraction allows for better steam flow adjustments through the steam turbine to generate additional mechanical power depending on the operating system. In special applications of special steam turbines, several Extraction points may be included, each at a different pressure corresponding to a different temperature at which heating service is needed in a plant. However such turbines are very complex and are normally not used. Specific needs for steam and power over time determines the extent of steam extraction. In large plants, additional steam may be admitted to the steam turbine. This happens when multiple boilers and steam generation systems are used at different Pressures because of the plant’s complexity and the need to reach thermal efficiency.
Extraction Back Pressure Steam turbines are used in refineries, district heating units, and pulp, and paper industries where large amounts of low-pressure process steam are needed. The electrical power generated by extraction back pressure turbines is directly proportional to the amount of process Steam required. Turtle Turbines supplies extraction back pressure turbines within India and abroad. For more information please visit www.turtleturbines.com

Turtle Turbines is one of the most reputed Steam Turbine Manufacturers In India.

Blades are the heart of a steam turbine, as they are the principal elements that convert thermal energy into kinetic energy. The efficiency and reliability of a turbine depend on the proper design of the blades and its design factors. The blade design is a multi-disciplinary task. It involves the thermodynamic, aerodynamic, mechanical, and material science disciplines. Total development of a new blade is, therefore, possible only when experts in all these fields come together as a team.
One of the key factors influencing the efficiency of turbines is the design of the turbine blades. Almost all the blading used in modern mechanical drive steam turbines is either of drawn or milled type construction. Drawn blades are machined from extruded airfoil-shaped pieces of material stock, while milled blades are machined from a rectangular piece of bar stock.
The efficiency of the turbine depends on the following blade parameters :
1) Inlet and outlet angle of the blade.
2) Blade materials.
3) Profile of the blade.
4) Surface finishing of the blade.

The modern design of turbine blades maximizes efficiency through complicated surface geometries. Machining these surfaces, therefore, requires a careful machining strategy. Well-worked machining strategy with continuous improvement is crucial to productivity and subsequent processes. Innovative tooling and qualified applications are the only way to meet the challenges involved especially the rotating blades. Semi-finishing and finishing of the blades also require the best tool and method solutions to achieve quality at high efficiency.
An improved blade design focused on resisting the effects of stresses, corrosive agents, and creeping inducing temperatures will elevate the turbine efficiency, consequently leading to an increase in the power plan’s overall efficiency. Improving efficient blade design will serve to reduce operating costs even further and lessen the environmental impacts of steam turbines. Overall, such a combination of technologies would benefit society by providing an efficient, viable, and sustainable means of generating electrical energy.