Citation :

S.Lingamaiah, R.Ramachandra, "Coal Consumption Optimization through Performance Gap Analysis and Heat Rate Improvement in Thermal Power Plants," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering, vol. 13, no. 9, pp. 71-88, 2026. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.14445/23488360/IJME-V13I9P105

Abstract

India coal fired thermal power is still playing an important role in electricity generation in the country. To enhance plant performance, economic competitiveness and environmental sustainability, therefore, the efficient use of coal is essential. Coal is the major component of the generation cost, and it plays a significant role in the plant heat rate and plant efficiency in Sri Damodaram Sanjeevaiah Thermal Power Station (SDSTPS). There have been several studies on heat-rate analysis, energy audit, and auxiliary power optimization, but little focus has been paid to the plant-level approach to optimize coal consumption with actual plant data. The present work is to optimizing coal consumption by considering technical and operational performance of the plant, in particular combustion efficiency and turbine heat rate, which are important parameters of specific consumption of coal. The study utilizes performance gap analysis, evaluation of operational data, energy audit and heat-rate analysis to determine the significant performance deviations and set appropriate optimization parameters to increase plant efficiency. The analysis indicates that optimizing the coal use systemically can lead to improved efficiency and reliability and reduce coal consumption overall. The results indicate that streamlined operational practices together with advanced energy management systems can significantly enhance plant performance. Such an approach will help SDSTPS operate more efficiently and serve as an example of sustainable and high-performance thermal power plant operation.

Keywords

Coal consumption, Energy efficiency optimization, Heat rate improvement, Sustainable power generation, Thermal power plant.

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