Power Plant Engineering

Basic Definition of Power Plant Engineering

Load Curve: A consumer of electrical power will use the power as and when required, and hence the load always be changing with time.

A curve showing the load demand of consumer with respect to time is called Load Curve. Power generation companies use this information to plan how much power they will need to generate at any given time.

Connected Load: The total load, as measured in kilowatts, which is connected to an Electric Power Supply System if all lights and equipment are turned on. It may be residential, commercial, industrial, municipal load etc.

Demand Factor: It is the ratio of maximum demand to connected load. The maximum value of demand factor is unity.

Demand Factor = Maximum Load / Connected Load

Average Load: The average load is obtained by dividing the area under the Load Curve (expressed in kwh) by the time period considered ( 24 hours)

Average Load = Area under the Load Curve (kwh) / 24 (h)

Tariff: The rate at which electricity is sold to the consumers is called Tariff.