Reliability analysis of a utility-scale solar power plant
This paper presents the results of a reliability analysis for a solar central receiver power plant that employs a salt-in-tube receiver. Because reliability data for a number of critical plant components have only recently been collected, this is the first time a credible analysis can be performed. This type of power plant will be built by a consortium of western US utilities led by the Southern California Edison Company. The 10 MW plant is known as Solar Two and is scheduled to be on-line in 1994. It is a prototype which should lead to the construction of 100 MW commercial-scale plants by the year 2000. The availability calculation was performed with the UNIRAM computer code. The analysis predicted a forced outage rate of 5.4% and an overall plant availability, including scheduled outages, of 91%. The code also identified the most important contributors to plant unavailability. Control system failures were identified as the most important cause of forced outages. Receiver problems were rated second with turbine outages third. The overall plant availability of 91% exceeds the goal identified by the US utility study. This paper discuses the availability calculation and presents evidence why the 91% availability is a credible estimate. 16 refs.
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-76DP00789
- OSTI ID:
- 10161269
- Report Number(s):
- SAND--92-1252C; CONF-9208103--1; ON: DE92016550
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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