Site Selection of Steam Power Plant:
The following consideration should be taken while site selection of steam power plant.
1. Availability of raw materials
Huge quantity of coal and fuel are required to run a steam (thermal) power plant. Therefore, it is important to locate the plant as near as possible to the coal fields to reduce the transportation cost.
If it is not possible to locate the plant near the coal field, then it should be located near the railway station or near to a port.
2. Ash disposal facilities
As a huge quantity of coal is burnt, this results in a huge quantity of ash too. The ash handling problem is more serious as compared to handling of coal because it comes out very hot and is very corrosive. If not disposed properly it will result in environmental pollution and other hazards. Therefore there must be sufficient space to dispose this large quantity of ash.
3. Nature of land
The land should have good bearing capacity about 1 MN/m2 as it has to withstand the dead load of plant and force transmitted to the foundation due to working of heavy machinery.
4. Cost of land
Large area is required to build a thermal power plant, therefore the land price should be affordable (cheap). For eg: Large plant in the heart of city will be very costly.
5. Availability of water
Water is the working fluid in a steam power plant, and a large quantity of water is converted to steam in order to run the turbine. It is important to locate the plant near the water source to fulfill its water demand through out the year.
6. Size of the plant
The capacity of the plant decides the size of the plant, large plant requires large area and the smaller plant requires considerably smaller area. Therefore, the size of the plant and its capacity play an important role in site selection of steam power plant.
7. Availability of workforce
During construction of plant, enough labour is required. The labour should be available at the proposed site at cheap rate.
8. Transportation facilities
Availability of proper transportation is another important consideration for the site selection of steam power plant as a huge quantity of raw materials (coal & fuel) through out the year and heavy machinery are to be brought to the site during the installation.
9. Load centre
The plant must be near to the load centre to which it is supplying power in order to decrease transmission loss and minimize transmission line cost.
10. Public problems
The plant should be away from the town or city in order to avoid nuisance from smoke, ash, heat and noise from the plant.
11. Future extension
A choice for future extension of the plant should be made in order to meet the power demand in future.