About 20% power output penalties will be incurred for implementing CO2 capture from power plant. This loss can be partially compensated by flexible operation of capture plant. However, daily large variations of liquid and gas flows may cause operation problems to packed columns. Control schemes were proposed to improve the flexibility of power output without causing substantial hydraulic disturbances in capture plant is presented. Simulations were implemented using ASPEN Plus. In varying lean solvent flow strategy, the flow rate of recycling solvent was manipulated to control the CO2 capture rate. The liquid flow of the absorber and gas flow of the stripper will vary substantially. In an alternative strategy, the lean solvent loading will be varied. Variation of gas throughput in the stripper is avoided by recycling part of CO2 vapor to stripper. This strategy provided more stable hydraulics condition in both columns and is recommended for flexible operation. (c) 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2012