Abstract: A power plant for a compressor station of a gas pipeline system comprises an electric generator intended to meet the compressor station's power requirements and coupled to the shaft of an expansion engine provided with a collection chamber, the inlet of the expansion engine being connected through a heater to a gas main, whereas the outlet of the expansion engine is connected to the combustion chambers of gas turbine installations. The collector chamber of the expansion engine communicates through a cooler for the medium discharged from that collector chamber with another portion of the gas main. The power plant of this invention can be employed at compressor stations of gas pipeline systems having gas mains operating at the same or different design pressures. The power plant is intended to meet power and fuel gas requirements of a compressor station.

Abstract: The proposed method for automatic control of a power plant is as follows. A control signal of the electric generator's electric load is applied to a first control element which controls the flow of gas supplied from the gas line to the high-pressure section of an expansion engine. This controls the amount of gas directed from the take-off chamber of the expansion engine to the gas pipeline. A control signal to control the pressure downstream of the expansion engine is applied to a second control element to control the flow rate of the gas flow directed from the low-pressure section of the expansion engine to the controlled counter-pressure line. A control signal to control the pressure downstream of the expansion engine is applied to a third control element to control the gas flow rate, which is installed in the line that bypasses the low-pressure section of the expansion engine, whereby the rest of the gas flow is directed to the controlled counterpressure line.