The System Architecture of the Integrated Solar Combined Cycle (ISCC)Power Plant: The Case of Ain Beni Mathar Morocco

Climate change is one of the most serious threats our world faces today. The energy-supply side is the number one contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, and responsible for almost 35% of the total emissions. In response to such facts, there have been actions to phase-out from generating electrical energy from conventional power plants that depend upon fossil fuels (mainly coal and oil) which produces steam to run the electrical generators. Among so many present-day alternatives, the Integrated Solar Combined Cycle (ISCC) power plant has emerged as one of the most efficient technologies for generating electricity, while being environmentally clean and economically viable. The basic concept of the ISCC scheme depends upon the integration of two power generation systems; the solar section that generates power by utilizing solar irradiation, and the gas-fired combined cycle section that depends upon natural gas, the cleanest among fossil fuel. This technology is credited with having low carbon emissions as well as high operational efficiency. This is due to the presence of the Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) system, which increases the overall generation efficiency in the plant to almost 50%. The first ISCC power station was inaugurated in the summer of 2010 in Morocco, known as the Ain Beni Mathar (ABM) power plant. The goal of this work is to apply the system architectural methodologies in order to better understand and analyze the performance and concept of operation of ISCC technology. We will use the world’s first ISCC station as a model in this paper