ABSTRACT

Nigeria is faced with endemic electricity generation problem which has remained a big obstacle to her becoming one of the developed nations of the world despite her being endowed with vast natural resources. There exists many power generating stations in Nigeria that are not operating at full efficiency. Many methodologies of optimizing the cost of fuel in running generating stations are in existence but the this study focused on optimizing the cost of fuel in power generation using maximum output approach (Lagrange Multipliers method of solution) with the MATLAB/SIMULINK and MINITAB software packages as tool for the analysis. The study presents an effort to help in solving high cost of power generation in Nigeria. The aim of this thesis is to minimize the cost of power generation in Nigeria using Omoku Power Station as a case study. The overall outcome is to solve the cost function equations under the given constraints for improved performance. The cost function equations or cost models and constraints to obtain minimized cost values are formulated for the Omoku generating station turbines as non-linear equations. The two (2) different test cases of the six (6) turbines at the Omoku power generating station that were considered by keeping the generated power constant within 24 hours of operation daily for a month and varying the number of hours of operation of the station yielded only 3% fuel cost saving while varying the generated power between 18 MW and 25 MW under fixed operating hours a month yielded 32% fuel cost saving. The results so obtained from the varied exercises showed huge savings in fuel consumption better when the operating hours are kept constant. These results showed that the fuel cost of power generation can be minimized with maximum output. The system will assist operators in power generation stations or the Generating Companies of Nigeria (GENCOS) to minimize their costs of power generation so as to plan for generation in the most economic and efficient manner.