ISSN (Print) : 2320 – 3765 ISSN (Online): 2278 – 8875 International Journal of Advanced Research in Electrical, Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering (An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization) Vol. 3, I ssue 9, September 2014 10.15662/ijareeie.2014.0309047 Copyright to IJAREEIE www.ijareeie.com 12168 Monitoring of Fuel Supply in Power Plant Boilers using LabVIEW Arun.P.R 1 , Manoj Radhakrishnan 2 , Dr.Azha Periasamy 3 , Dr. S. Muruganand 4 M.Phil. Scholar, Department of E&I, Bharathiyar University, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India 1, 2 Assistant Professor, Department of E&I, Bharathiyar University, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India 3,4 ABSTRACT: The perception of this paper based on a project done for adjusting and monitoring of fuel supply in power plant boilers using LabVIEW. For power generation, in thermal power plant system water is converted to steam and the steam is send it to the high pressure turbine in order to rotate the shaft then the power has been produced. The Natural Gas (Methane, CH 4 ) is used as more reliable fuel for boilingthe water. The fuel supply is controlled by using Programmable Logical Controller (PLC) mechanism. The proposed method has implemented using LabVIEW for monitoring and controlling the fuel supply for increasing the fuel efficiency and safety. Fuel Supply System (FSS) has modeled in LabVIEW for easy access of the system. The communication between the LabVIEW and PLC is done by using Object Linking and Embedding for Process Control (OPC) server software. This proposed method the natural gas is controlled and energize, two boilers and one pilot's gun is used for ignition. KEYWORDS:LabVIEW, PLC, Power Plant, OPC Server, Boiler. I.INTRODUCTION Most of the power generation system in the thermal power plant, steam is used to rotate a turbine and power has been generated. Steam is generated by boiling water. To boil water, Natural gas (Methane, CH 4 ) is used [11]. In this boiler, the water is heated with the steam temperature (520 0 C) and it is transmitted through heat resistive pipes to the turbine. It causes of auxiliary equipment to burn it is expensive, so a separate ignition control Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is used. The natural gas has various advantages such as auxiliary cost for igniting the fuel is low.Themonitoring and controlling is done using PLC with LabVIEW Environment. The programmable logical controller SLC 500 series 5/04 is used. And the interfacing with LabVIEW is achieved through an OPC serversoftware enabling.The Boiler is filled with natural gas. Steam from the boiler’s passes through a flow meter and then to the turbine. Suitable taps are provided with pipesit determines the quality by measuring the pressure and temperature. A main valve is used to control the flow rate of the boiler. The output shaft of the turbine is coupled to the alternator. A panel mounted tachometer is provided to measure the turbine speed. Primarily a control signal is sent from the controller to check the residual air stuck up in the line, for that the vent valves were turned ON. It also makes sure there is no any previous air stuck inside. Then the main Natural gas line starts, the receiving pressure is 10kg/cm 2 . A pressure gauge and a pressure transmitter are used for monitoring and control of the Fuel Supply system. By using a mass flow meter the flow is measured, and the pressure is adjusted to 5kg/cm 2 , by using control and diaphragm valve. Another part goes to a series of pressure switch, which connected to the controller and the pressure maintains to 1kg/cm 2 . It goes to the two boilers. This fuel meets up with ignite, which already been lighted and fired up the boiler. The status of the flame is monitored using a film scanner and controlled using a solenoid valve. One boiler consists of two drums, where the lowered drum is heated and the steam goes to the top one, where, the residual condensed water held in the second drum is sent back this process is continues it also called as a cyclic process. Thus the water is converted to steam by using Natural gas as a fuel and the turbines are rotated to produce energy.Automatic/Semi- automatic Control schemessaves the operational costs and operational time. Therefore, minimizing operating costs and improving efficiency are key objectives of the operation and maintenance of power plant.The test ring consists of a steam turbine coupled to an alternator both mounted on a suitable base plate.