Techno-Economic Assessment of Coal-Fired Power Unit Decarbonization Retrofit with KP-FHR Small Modular Reactors

Abstract

The near and mid-term future of the existing Polish coal-fired power fleet is uncertain. The longer-term operation of unabated coal power is incompatible with climate policy and is economically challenging because of the increasing price of CO2 emission allowances in the EU. The results of the techno-economic analysis presented in this paper indicate that the retrofit of existing coal-fired units, by means of replacing coal-fired boilers with small modular reactors, may be an interesting option for the Polish energy sector. It has been shown that the retrofit can reduce the costs in relation to greenfield investments by as much as 35%. This analysis focuses on the repowering of a 460 MW supercritical coal-fired unit based on the Łagisza power plant design with high temperature small modular nuclear reactors based on the 320 MWth unit design by Kairos Power. The technical analyses did not show any major difficulties in integrating. The economic analyses show that the proposed retrofits can be economically justified, and, in this respect, they are more advantageous than greenfield investments. For the base economic scenario, the difference in NPV (Net Present Value) is more favorable for the retrofit by 556.9 M€ and the discounted payback period for this pathway is 10 years.

Investigating Benefits and Challenges of Converting Retiring Coal Plants into Nuclear Plants

“…(WNN, 2022a). This estimate is also consistent (or comes from) analysis based on Kairos Power LLC SMR design (Bartela et al, 2021), and is consistent with C2N#3 approach.…”

“…3. Bartela et al (2021) investigate uncertainty surrounding the future of the Polish CPP fleet given economic challenges and increasingly ambitious climate targets and investigate the potential for SMRs to replace coal-fired boilers. Toward this aim, the authors perform a TEA of the replacement of the furnace and boiler in an existing Polish brownfield coal site with the Kairos Power Fluoride-saltcool High-Temperature Reactor (KP-FHR).…”

“…As discussed in several publications (Bartela et al, 2021;ScottMadden, 2021), NPPs and CPPs share some important commonalities that bring potential for component reuse with corresponding capital costs and risks reduction. First, NPPs and CPPs are typically large-sized generators requiring a nontrivial overall physical site footprint and grid connection of significant size.…”

“…The main points that would need to be considered with a full redesign analysis (beyond the scope of this report) are the potential cost opportunities and thermal-efficiency penalties of reusing CPP steam-cycle systems vs. components optimized for the NPP operating conditions. In Bartela et al (2021), the authors went through the exercise of applying of FHR concept (from Kairos Power) to an existing CPP (SC), demonstrating that maintaining the thermal efficiency was feasible through careful reuse of its steamcycle components and connection through TES.…”

“…This report considers several general reactor types to inform on paths toward C2N. The next step would be to consider specific technologies under development by industry; this approach would provide better resolution for a specific C2N project but should be completed by a nuclear vendor, such as those proposed by TerraPower (TerraPower, 2022b), Kairos Power (Bartela et al, 2021), andNuScale (NuScale, 2021). This study provides more general compatibility discussion that could be applied to different CPP and NPP technologies and will therefore rely on generic cost data with larger associated uncertainty.…”