Return of experience on transient behavior at the DSG solar thermal Power plant in Kanchanaburi, Thailand

Abstract

After two years of successful operation, the Thai Solar One (TSE-1) power plant has not only shown the proof of concept of the DSG technology. The operation of the plant under sub-tropical climate characterised by frequent occurrence of brief and intense cloud phenomena, which set high requirements on the loop control system, has even proved the reliability of the technology under not ideal conditions for CSP plants. Within the KanDis project a DLR intern read off and evaluating program has been developed. For each operating day “characteristic values” and plots were generated, archived und statistically evaluated. With focus on transient behavior (parallel flow stability, part load, startup procedure etc..), the aim of this paper is to expose the return on experience of the first two year operation of the worldwide unique DSG plant with superheated steam and refute some skepticism regarding particularly the parallel flow instabilities.