Patent ID: 7434403

Claim:
A method of operating a thermal power plant in which a rotary unit is driven by burning gaseous fuel inside a combustion chamber where hot gases are formed, and the rotary energy of the rotary unit is converted into another form of energy that defines a load set point (L) of the thermal power plant, the load set point (L) being set by regulating the quantity of gaseous fuel fed to the combustion process, wherein the thermal power plant is operated at the load set point (L), provided the gaseous fuel is fed to the combustion process through a gas line at a gas pressure p gas >p action limit ( L ), wherein p action limit (L) represents a pressure value which depends at least on the load set point (L) of the thermal power plant, wherein, when the gas pressure p gas drops to the pressure value P action limit (L), at least one of the following measures is initiated: throttling of cooling of combustion air forming an air component in a fuel/air mixture burnt in the combustion chamber; throttling of steam admixed to the fuel/air mixture; and/or throttling of cooling of the steam admixed to the fuel/air mixture, wherein for the case in which one or more of the above measures have been completely shut off, and stabilization of or increase in the gas pressure p gas is not achieved, a temperature of the gaseous fuel fed to the combustion process is reduced, and for the case in which the reduction in the fuel temperature does not lead to the stabilization of or increase in the gas pressure, a controlled deloading of the thermal power plant is initiated.