How Does A Thermal Power Plant Work?
by Javohir Mahmudov
Published: May 22, 2025
Last Updated: May 23, 2025
Nowadays, electricity has become the main source of energy. It’s used everywhere: from home microwave ovens to public buses.
In terms of electricity production, different sources can be turned into electricity. These can be fossil fuels, nuclear energy, renewable energy, etc. In the context of Uzbekistan, fossil fuel makes up the majority of the electricity generation source. In fact, natural gas (82.2%), coal (7.6%), and oil (0.9%) make up 90.7% of electricity generation (International Energy Agency, 2022).
To convert fossil fuels into electricity, thermal power plants are needed. Thermal power plants convert chemical or mechanical energy produced by fossil fuels into usable electricity. Thermal power plants might be coal-based, gas-based, or oil-based.
The diagram illustrates the phases and equipment involved in the generation of electricity. The production involves an 8-stage cyclic process that starts with loading fossil fuel into boiler. Thermal plants use water as a working fluid, which makes it an efficient method of producing energy. This is because water can be recycled and reused as it easily changes back and forth between liquid and gaseous states.
After fossil fuels are delivered into a boiler with water tubes, the heat created by the combustion of fossil fuels boils water in tubes. Under this process, water in tubes turns into steam with high pressure and temperature. Subsequently, this steam is passed to the turbine and rotates its rotor blades. In turn, the turbine rotates the shaft of the generator that is connected to it. The generator creates electricity by spinning magnets with the coil inside itself. In this way, mechanical energy gets converted into electrical energy.
Generated energy passes to the step-up transformer to increase the voltage in order to minimize losses. The high voltage energy is transmitted through transmission lines to cities. Then, after decreasing the voltage with step-down transformers, energy will be ready to be used by consumers.
To make the electricity generation process cyclical, we need to go back to the turbine stage. After turning the turbine steam goes down to the condenser section, where hot steam gets condensed by touching the tube with cold water. Then hot steam turns into small drops and turns into cold water. This feed water then passes to the beginning stage - the water tube boiler, and the cycle restarts. On the heat rejection side, cool water is supplied with the help of a cooling tower. Heated water from the condenser is sprayed into the natural draft cooling tower. Next, the process cools down the water, and cold water goes back to the condenser section.
This process of generating energy from fossil fuels is the product of years of research in the field of chemistry, physics, and engineering. Now the efficiency range of thermal power plants has gone up to 40-45%.
Reference:
Исполнительный комитет Электроэнергетического Совета СНГ.
Электроэнергетика государств-участников СНГ за 2013-2023 гг.
http://energo-cis.ru/rumain675/
International Energy Agency
https://www.iea.org/countries/uzbekistan/electricity