Method and apparatus for improving steam temperature control

Abstract

A system for analyzing the impact of operating soot blowers in a heat transfer section of a power plant determines a steam temperature influencing sequence and calculates a feed-forward signal to be applied to a steam temperature control system of the heat transfer section. The system operates a group of soot blowers for a number of times and collects quantitative data related to the steam temperature during and after each soot blowing operation. A computer program used by the system analyzes the quantitative data, generates a number of statistical parameters for evaluating the impact of operating the soot blowers according to a given sequence on the steam temperature, and determines whether the given sequence is a steam temperature influencing sequence. Consequently, the system determines a feed-forward signal based on the steam temperature influencing sequence and applies the feed-forward signal to a steam temperature control system used by the heat transfer section to compensate for any adverse impact of soot blowing.