ASME PTC 46 1996 BASIC INFORMATION AND TUTORIALS

What is ASME, Performance Test Code on Overall Plant Performance, ASME PTC 46 1996?

This code is written to establish the overall plant performance. Power plants, which produce secondary energy output such as cogeneration facilities, are included within the scope of this code.

For cogeneration facilities, there is no requirement for a minimum percentage of the facility output to be in the form of electricity; however, the guiding principles, measurement methods, and calculation procedures are predicated on electricity being the primary output.

As a result, a test of a facility with a low proportion of electric output may not be capable of meeting the expected test uncertainties of this code. This code provides explicit procedures for the determination of power plant thermal performance and electrical output.

Test results provide a measure of the performance of a power plant or thermal island at a specified cycle configuration, operating disposition and/or fixed power level, and at a unique set of base reference conditions.

Test results can then be used as defined by a contract for the basis of determination of fulfillment of contract guarantees. Test results can also be used by a plant owner, for either comparison to a design number, or to trend performance changes over time of the overall plant.

The results of a test conducted in accordance with this code will not provide a basis for comparing the thermoeconomic effectiveness of different plant design.

Power plants are comprised of many equipment components. Test data required by this code may also provide limited performance information for some of this equipment; however, this code was not designed to facilitate simultaneous code level testing of individual equipment.

ASME PTCs, which address testing of major power plant equipment, provide a determination of the individual equipment isolated from the rest of the system. PTC 46 has been designed to determine the performance of the entire heat cycle as an integrated system.

Where the performance of individual equipment operating within the constraints of their design-specified conditions are of interest, ASME PTCs developed for the testing of specific components should be used.

Likewise, determining overall thermal performance by combining the results of ASME code tests conducted on each plant component is not an acceptable alternative to a PTC 46 test.