Our paper analyzes the issue of managing structural and technological modernization of the Russian power utilities industry based on the basic criteria of sustainable development. We have chosen coal-fired generation and its defining technologies as the main subject for our analysis. Key points of the Russian power utilities development strategy that has been drawn up to 2030 are compared against the basic principles of sustainable development. Moreover, a mathematical economic model is proposed to justify the choice of coal-fired power plant technology from the standpoint of economic, social, and environmental efficiency.

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This paper provides a comparative entrepreneurial analysis of modern combined-cycle power generation technologies and future-oriented high-efficiency oxy-fuel combustion cycles with zero emissions. Considering the main criteria for sustainable development, we identify the generation technology that provides the lowest cost of electricity supply and the maximum economic efficiency of investments with equally high environmental indicators. Based on a comprehensive literature review and comparison of the technical and economic parameters of modern and forward-looking generation technologies under different economic conditions, the paper develops and presents the path of increasing the technical level of generation technologies, corresponding to the conditions of sustainable development at each moment of time. Furthermore, the paper analyses the technical and economic characteristics of the combined-cycle technology successfully applied in the world's energy systems and advanced oxy-fuel combustion cycles. In addition, the paper proposes a multifactorial economic-mathematical model that allows to evaluate the performance indicators of any of the considered technologies in accordance with the criteria for sustainable development.

The transition to oxy-fuel combustion power cycles is a prospective way to decrease carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere from the energy sector. To identify which technology has the highest efficiency and the lowest emission level, a thermodynamic analysis of the semiclosed oxy-fuel combustion combined cycle (SCOC-CC), the E-MATIANT cycle, and the Allam cycle was carried out. The modeling methodology has been described in detail, including the approaches to defining the working fluid properties, the mathematical models of the air separation unit, and the cooled gas turbine cycles’ calculation algorithms. The gas turbine inlet parameters were optimized using the developed modeling methodology for the three oxy-fuel combustion power cycles with CO2 recirculation in the inlet temperature at a range of 1000 to 1700 °C. The effect of the coolant flow precooling was evaluated. It was found that a decrease in the coolant temperature could lead to an increase of the net efficiency up to 3.2% for the SCOC-CC cycle and up to 0.8% for the E-MATIANT cycle. The final comparison showed that the Allam cycle’s net efficiency is 5.6% higher compared to the SCOC-CC cycle, and 11.5% higher compared with the E-MATIANT cycle.

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The world community is worried about the effects of global warming. A few agreements on the reduction of CO2 emissions have been signed recently. A large part of these emissions is produced by the power production industry. Soon, the requirements for thermal power plant ecology and efficiency performance may become significantly higher. Thus, the contemporary problem is the development of highly efficient power production facilities with low toxic and greenhouse gas emission. An efficient way to reduce CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, which implies maintaining economic growth, is the creation of closed thermodynamic cycles with oxy-fuel combustion. The Allam cycle is one of the most promising among oxy-fuel power plants. A 50 MW pilot Allam cycle plant was built in Texas. The design for a commercial system with an electrical output of 300 MW is under development. This work is devoted to the improvement of the efficiency and environmental safety of oxy-fuel combustion power cycles via the utilization of compressed working fluid heat. The results of computer simulation obtained using AspenONE software demonstrated that an additional circuit in the multi-flow regenerator might increase net efficiency by 3.5%. Besides this, the incorporation of a supercritical carbon dioxide (S–CO2) Brayton cycle with recompression increased the efficiency by 0.2%. Therefore, the maximum net efficiency of the prospective power unit was 51.4%.

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