Advantages of Thermal Power plant

Thermal power plants are the power plants in which coal combustion is used for generating electrical energy. These are also known as steam power plants.

There are so many advantages and disadvantages of Thermal power plants as below:-

Advantages of Thermal Power plants

1.      Lower Fuel cost:-

Main advantage of Thermal power plant in comparison to other power plants is that fuel i.e. coal is very much cheap in comparison to other fuel power plants.

2.     Availability of Fuel:-

There is abundant availability of coal and also cost of extraction of coal is quite cheaper.

3.     Lower installation cost:-

Thermal power plants installation cost is very much lower than other power plants.

4.     Ease of Installation irrespective of location:-

Thermal power plants can be installed anywhere in world as coal used of these power plants can be transported by rail/ road/ ship.

5.     Lower space requirements

Space required for installation of Thermal power plants is very much lower than Hydro power plants.

         Simpler heat production cycle

Cycle of heat production is quite simpler than other power plants i.e. heat production cycle is very simple.

7.      Ease of Maintenance

Maintenance of thermal power plants is quite simple. Thermal power plant technology is very old one so process knowledge is abundant available for Thermal power plants.

8.     Safer Operation

Thermal power plants are considered safe in comparison to nuclear power plants. Any failure may leads to cascading effects in nuclear power plants but not in thermal power plants.

9.      Dependability:-

Thermal power plants boiler is more dependable, as thermal power plants supply power during peak load as a base power and in off peak load is valued as power plant fuel.

Disadvantages of Thermal power plants:-

1.      Excessive Pollution problem

Main disadvantage of associated with thermal power plants is the pollution caused by these power plants. These power plants produces large amount of smoke and fumes. This harmful smoke and fumes leads to acid rains and also very harmful to human beings. Coal used in thermal power plants leaves behind very harmful byproducts after combustion.

2.     Higher power generation cost

Power generation cost in Thermal power plants is higher than Hydro power plants as there is no requirement of fuel in these plants.

3.     Lower efficiency

Efficiency of these power plants of quite low in range of 30%.