Question

Which of the following is NOT an advantage of diesel power plants?
1. Can be started and put on load quickly
2. Low maintenance cost
3. Can burn fairly wide range of fuels
4. Occupy less space

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 2 : Low maintenance cost

Diesel Power Plants:

• The diesel power plant can be installed for a wide range of capacity from 75 to 3750 kW
• The diesel power plant is used as a peak load power plant
• Diesel power plants are used as a standby supply of different industries, commercial complexes, hospitals, etc
• During a power cut, these diesel power generators are run to fulfil the required power demand

Advantages:

• This is simple from the design point of view
• Required very small space
• It has a quick starting facility; the small diesel generator set can be started within a few seconds
• As these machines can be easily started and stopped as when required, there may not be any standby loss in the system
• Cooling is easy and required a small quantity of water
• The initial cost is less than other types of power stations
• The thermal efficiency of diesel is quite higher than coal

Disadvantages:

• The cost of diesel as fuel is very high compared to coal, this makes the running cost of this plant is higher compared to steam and hydropower plants
• The cost of lubricants is high
• Maintenance is quite complex and costs high
• The plant does not work satisfactorily under overload conditions for a longer period.

 

Solution: 

Low maintenance cost is NOT an advantage of diesel power plants.