Power plants. General considerations.

Power plants. General considerations. Power plants are complex installations and their design requires an extensive amount of information.
In this type of projects, studies at the conceptual level mark the development significantly, and an adequate focus at this stage will guarantee the recovery of the investment in the expected time. Aspects such as: demand, technology, regulations, fuel, site, are of high value for the project.
Given the complexity of this system, specialized software has been developed in the simulation or modeling of these plants, to evaluate different design options that maximize long-term benefits, where the person responsible for this study must be able to consider all related variables, their impact and feasibility.
Being the power plants highly requested facilities and with great investment, the conceptual studies can be carried out in stages, to request the funds for their execution. In general, at the conceptual level, it is recommended to carry out studies at 3 levels.
The first includes the most basic evaluations, such as: planning the design of the systems (capacity, fuel, definition of systems), preliminary economic study, and the study of location (macro location). In the second, aspects such as performance (efficiency, water balance, etc.), main systems, and location study (micro location) are considered. At the third level, the systems are already specified, and the information necessary for basic engineering is defined.