Heat flow diagrams with and without a deaerator for steam turbine plants with T-250/300-23.5 turbines

A T-250/300-240 turbine (currently known as T-250/300-23.5), which is operated at 31 steam turbine plants, is the largest in the world extraction turbine (by the heating extraction load) and one of the largest by the nominal capacity. All steam turbine plants equipped with T-250/300-23.5 turbines of different modifications are operated in large cities of Russia and the neighboring countries covering a significant part of the needs of cities for the electric power and almost fully supplying them with heat power. The design life of a significant part of the operated steam turbine plants of this family is either expired or almost expired. It refers to both the turbine unit (including a turbine and a generator) and the turbine plant equipment. For steam turbine plants equipped with T-250/300-23.5 turbines, which were initially designed and mounted for work with deaerators at electric power stations, the heat flow diagrams with and without a deaerator were compared. The main advantages and disadvantages of each scheme were shown. It was concluded that, for the newly constructed power units with supercritical steam parameters, it is preferable to use the heat flow diagram without a deaerator; for the upgraded blocks, if there are no objective reasons for the removal of a deaerator, it is recommended to keep the existing heat flow diagram of a turbine plant.