Volume 6 • Issue 2 • 1000149 Int J Adv Technol ISSN: 0976-4860 IJOAT, an open access journal Pragyaditya et al., Int J Adv Technol 2015, 6:2 DOI: 10.4172/0976-4860.1000149 Open Access Research Article Open Access Research Article Research Article Open Access *Corresponding author: Pragyaditya Das, Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirrapalli, India, Tel: +91 8754218356; E-mail: pragyaditya.das94@gmail.com Received November 10, 2015; Accepted November 27, 2015; Published December 15, 2015 Citation: Pragyaditya D, Kumaran S, Kanna BC (2015) Monitoring and Control of an In-House Steam Power Plant: A Support of the Idea of Distributed Power Generation. Int J Adv Technol 6: 149. doi:10.4172/0976-4860.1000149 Copyright: © 2015 Pragyaditya D, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Keywords: Distributed energy generation; Steam power plant Introduction One of the major and most inevitable forms of energy for the modern human race is Electricity. Its absence is enough to put the existence of several socioeconomic infrastructures to question. It is easy to handle, simple to transport and is very versatile. Tis trait makes it the most desirable source of energy. Tere are various ways of generation of Electricity, namely, Termal, Hydro, Geothermal, Nuclear and many more. Here, we will be discussing about the Steam Power Plants, which can be classifed under Termal. Steam power plants play a key role in electric power generation. Terefore the Rankine steam power cycle is one of the most important cyclic processes used in industry. Te efciency is up to 45% with recent technological advancements [1-3]. Working Principle of a Steam Power Plant Te working fuid is Water. Te advantage of this type of power plant is. It uses the same fuid repeatedly. Firstly, the water is fed into the boiler, where it is heated and eventually turns to vapor phase. Tis steam produced by the boiler is directed to do work on the turbine to produce mechanical power in the form of rotation. Te steam from the turbine is then fowed into the condenser to be cooled with the cooling water. At this stage, the steam is back to its liquid stage. Te rotation of turbine is used to turn a generator that is coupled directly to the turbine. So, when the turbine rotates, the generator output terminals generate electricity. Tough, the working fuid (water) works in a closed cycle, there will be some decrease in its volume. Tis is due to leakages, either intentional or unintentional. Te efciency of the plant working on steam is a function of the maximum temperature of the steam generated and is not directly proportional to the fuel used. Tus, the type of fuel used is insignifcant as regards to the efciency of the steam power generation, but plays an important role in the overall system efciency (Figure 1). Tools Used Labview sofware For real time data acquisition of various real time parameters during the simulation. Monitoring and Control of an In-House Steam Power Plant: A Support of the Idea of Distributed Power Generation Pragyaditya Das 1* , S Kumaran 2 and Barath Kanna C 1 1 Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirrapalli, India 2 Achutha College of Engineering, Bangalore, India Abstract As the world is getting more and more sensitive towards the use of energy, it is moving their focus towards independent and distributed ways of generation of energy. Distributed Generation (DG) based on Renewable Energy Technologies (solar, wind, hydro and biomass) is becoming a more important energy option in the future generation system. What we are trying to implement is breaking the large central power plant into multiple smaller, non-centralized power plants. In this way, each user can generate the appropriate amount of power they need and subsequently result in an effcient usage. We will be distributing a centralized energy generation point into a network on smaller energy generation points we will call this network as a “grid”. We will also be simulating our idea to verify our claim. In the longer-term, a system-wide approach for determining Distributed Generation costs and benefts should be adopted. Arduino For operation control using Servo Motor. MCC DAQ card Used for monitoring process parameters. Using the results obtained from real time simulations, we have concluded that our proposal of distributed power generation is applicable, both from the technological and economical point of view. Process Measurement and Simulation Details We will be using the DAQ MCC 1208FS card for monitoring our steam power plant, we provide the required control using an Arduino Board and the sofware used is NI Lab View. MCC expands to Measurement Computing Corporation. DAQ expands to Data Acquisition. Te mission of Measurement Computing Corporation is to provide our customers with PC-based data acquisition hardware and sofware that will save time and save money [4]. A steam power plant will have a number of sensors, like, Temperature sensor, Pressure sensor, Flow sensor, Level sensor, RPM sensor, PH sensor, Vibration sensor, Voltage sensor [5]. Temperature monitoring of the boiler Termocouple is used to monitor the boiler temperature. Te output of the sensor is obtained in milivolts (mV). In our simulation process, the boiler is heated to 100 degrees centigrade, afer that the water is allowed to become steam. Te positive terminal of the sensor is connected to Channel-0/Ai0 IN, Pin 1 and negative terminal is I n t e r n a t i o n a l J o u r n a l o f A d v a n c e m e n t s i n T e c h n o l o g y ISSN: 0976-4860 International Journal of Advancements in Technology