What is the Heat Rate in Power Plant
In the name of Allah, the most beneficent, the most merciful.
All praises and gratitudes to Almighty Allah who has given me the ability of writing this article. Peace and blessings of Allah be upon him who is the last and final messenger of Allah.
Dear Reader, peace and blessings of Allah be upon you. I hope you are doing well by the grace of almighty Allah. Alhamdulillah I’m also well by His immense mercy.
However, I’m today going to write about a very important metric for electrical power generating station. The topic is Heat Rate.
What is the Heat Rate?
Heat Rate is a measure of the efficiency of a electrical generator or power plant that converts fuel into thermal energy and thermal energy into electrical energy. The heat rate is the amount of heat or thermal energy used by a generator or power plant to generate one kilowatt hour of electrical energy. It’s usually expressed by British thermal unit per kilowatt hour (BTU/kWh).
However, the heat rate can also be expressed by kilojoule per kilowatt hour (KJ/kWh) and kilocalorie per kilowatt hour (Kcal/kWh). Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission measures the heat rate in kilojoule per kilowatt hour (KJ/kWh)
The importance of heat rate.
The heat rate is a very important metric of a generator or power plant. It indicates the efficiency of a generator or power plant.
A lower heat rate indicates a higher efficiency of the generator or power plant while a higher heat rate indicates lower efficiency of the generator or power plant.
It’s also indicates how much energy is being losses of the generator or power plant.
How to calculate the heat rate.
You can calculate the rate for a period of time. Suppose, you want to calculate the heat rate of a generator for a month. Then you have to know the total fuel consumption of this month and the total electrical energy produced in this month. And you must know the calorific value of the fuel.
Then,
Heat Rate= (Fuel× CV)/electrical energy
Let’s calculate the heat rate based of the usage of August month of our diesel generator.
- Diesel Consumption = 8634 Ltr
- Energy Produced = 31847 kWh
- Calorific Value of Diesel= 35000-38000 KJ/Ltr. So, we can consider the CV 36000 kJ/Ltr
Now,
Heat Rate=( Fuel×CV)/ kWh = (8634×36000)/31847 = 9759.91 KJ/kWh
Heat rate can vary from time to time and generator to generator.