Application of modern methods in power plant simulation and control

A range of advanced simulation tools is now available which facilitates the modelling and analysis of complex systems. The authors' companies have been utilising the versatility of two such products to simulate a complex industrial combined heat and power (CHP) plant. The potential benefits include improvements in the plant design, control system design and in-process operation. This article describes two projects where the specialised power plant simulation tool ACSL/MMS has been used. In the second project, MATLAB/SIMULINK was used to analyse and undertake control design studies on power plants originally simulated using ACSL/MMS.