Overview A "traditional" thermal power plant operates on the Rankine cycle.

A power plant cycle is a series of processes in which a fluid, typically water/steam, is used to convert heat energy to mechanical energy. The Rankine cycle in its simplest form consists of a boiler, a turbine, a condenser, and a boiler feed pump.

The Rankine cycle has been refined considerably over the years and made more efficient by the addition of components like feedwater heaters, superheaters, and reheaters. The efficiency of the Rankine cycle has also been improved by increasing the pressure and temperature of the cycle.

The first industrial combustion turbines for power production and other industrial applications, such as driving locomotives, were introduced in the United States shortly after World War II. Combustion turbines operate based on another type of power plant cycle called the Brayton cycle. The first commercial, industrial combustion turbines were relatively inefficient, typically having a 16 to 17% thermal efficiency.

As the combustion turbine industry matured, the designs improved. Use of combustion turbines in the power utility industry increased steadily from their introduction in the late 1940's, until the early 1970's. Then, the demand for electric power exceeded production increases from the addition of new Rankine cycle plants alone. Combustion turbine plants were attractive because they could be built much more rapidly than Rankine cycle plants.

The oil crisis of the early 1970's brought a sudden halt to the popularity of combustion turbines for three reasons. First, almost all utility combustion turbines used either gas or oil for fuel. The cost of these fuels went up dramatically as supply plummeted. Secondly, the oil crisis brought renewed attention to the need for efficiency. Combustion turbines of this era were significantly less efficient than Rankine cycle plants. Finally, the emphasis on conserving energy throughout the U.S. reduced the increasing demand for new power plants.

Recently, combustion turbine plant demand has boomed, partly because of steady increases in efficiency due to material and design improvements. Additionally, growth has been spurred by the growing popularity of combined cycle plants. A combined cycle plant consists of one or more combustion turbines that drive generators and exhaust into a special boiler called a Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) that generates steam for a Rankine cycle unit.

High thermal efficiency is one of the principal reasons for the popularity of the combined cycle power plants. Combined cycle plants can have thermal efficiencies as high as 58%. Higher efficiencies are achieved because heat from the combustion turbine exhaust is used in the Rankine cycle portion of the plant instead of being rejected to the atmosphere.

Overview Combined cycle plants also require a relatively short time required for construction. Although it takes longer to build a combined cycle plant than a simple gas turbine plant, a combined cycle plant can be built in much less time than a Rankine cycle plant of comparable output.

Overview However, combined cycle plants rely primarily on natural gas and fuel oil. Typically, natural gas and fuel oil are more costly fuel sources when compared to abundant domestically produced coal. Because of this, a combined cycle plant is typically more efficient thermodynamically, but a coal plant might be less expensive to run due to lower fuel costs.