Why Is The Thermal Efficiency Of Steam Power Plant Low?

The efficiency of a steam power plant is low due to the heat losses that occur in different phases of operation.

The overall efficiency of a steam turbine is rather low (approx. 29%) for two main reasons.

Firstly, a large amount of heat is lost in the condenser, and secondly, heat losses occur at various stages of installation.

The steam turbine side uses the thermodynamic Rankine cycle with saturated steam temperatures

, which provides lower thermal cycle efficiency than high-temperature coal-fired power plants.

The efficiency of the heat cycle is around 38%.