Balance Of Plant (BOP)

In Coal Fire Steam power plant that is considered the most important system is system generator and turbine system boiler. From this turbine generator system, the electrical energy generated and then supplied to the interconnection network for distribution to consumers. Beside that system there are additional system which no less vital role the system Balance of Plant (BOP).

Balance of Plant consists of several main sub system such as : Condenser system, Feed water system, Water Treatment Plant, Cooling Tower and others.

Condenser system consists of several main equipment, namely the condenser itself, condenser tube cleaning systems, condenser vaccum system and condensate pump. Condenser vaccum system serves to keep the pressure inside the condenser is always less than atmospheric pressure. This is done to increase plant efficiency of PLTU.

Water Treatment plant serves to produce all of the water needs for operational of PLTU. There are basically 2 types of water. The first is demineralized water (demin water) for supplying boiler in producing steam turbine. Demineralized water because of water called the already eliminated minerals content. The second is the raw water needed for cooling (cooling water) for the machines to be used as a PLTU and service water.

Water is pumped back into the boiler in plain known as boiler feed water. The system supplying the feed water consists of several main equipment, namely:  Feed water pumps, Feed  water  with Deaerator tank and feed water heater tanks.

To increase the efficiency of PLTU, before going into the boiler, pumped feed water has to be heated in advance until it reaches a certain temperature. The heating is done with a heater (heat exchanger), which took place in conduction by utilizing steam heat taken from the turbine. So in addition to the condenser, is forwarded to a small amount of steam from the turbine is taken to heat the feed water heater.

Cooling towers are heat removal devices used to transfer process waste heat to the atmosphere. Cooling towers may either use the evaporation of water to remove process heat and cool the working fluid to near the wet-bulb air temperature or in the case of closed circuit dry cooling towers rely solely on air to cool the working fluid to near the dry-bulb air temperature. Common applications include cooling the circulating water used in oil refineries, chemical plants, power stations and building cooling. The towers vary in size from small roof-top units to very large hyperboloid structures that can be up to 200 metres tall and 100 metres in diameter, or rectangular structures (as in Image 2) that can be over 40 metres tall and 80 metres long. Smaller towers are normally factory-built, while larger ones are constructed on site. They are often associated with nuclear power plants in popular culture, although cooling towers are constructed on many types of buildings.

Here some Balance of  Plant pictures taken from PLTU Asam-Asam South Kalimantan : 

Demineralized Water Tank

Reverse Osmosis Plant

Fuel Oil Tank

Circulating Water Pump & Cooling Tower

Ash Silo

Switch Yard