Markov Probabilistic Approach-Based Availability Simulation Modeling and Performance Evaluation of Coal Supply System of Thermal Power Plant

Abstract

The high demand of electricity from the society can be fulfilled by various sources, and thermal power plant is one of the largest sources of power generation in India. Availability of thermal power plant is dependent upon its subsystem and equipment in use. The equipment of thermal power plant can be maintained highly reliable if suitable maintenance is performed at defined time interval. This paper presents availability simulation modeling for coal supply subsystem using Markov birth–death probabilistic approach for thermal power plant generating 500 MW from Unit 1 located in western region of India. The equipment considered for availability analysis is coal mill, stacker reclaimer, and wagon tippler. For this reason, the differential equations are generated. These equations are solved using normalizing condition so as to find out the steady-state availability of coal supply system. The effects for occurrence of failures activity as well as availability of repair facilities on system performance are investigated. This study revealed that stacker reclaimer is the most critical equipment of coal supply system which needs more attention for form maintenance point of view and followed by coal mill and wagon tippler. The results show that availability simulation modeling based on Markov birth–death probabilistic approach is very effective tool finding critical equipment of thermal power plant. Further, particle swarm optimization method is used for finding the optimized availability parameter which in turn helps to select maintenance strategy.