Take Care of Your Cooling Tower and It Will Take Care of You

Take Care of Your Cooling Tower and It Will Take Care of You

David Brumbaugh – President of DRB Industries

One of the most important maintenance concerns at a Combined Cycle Power Plant and often the most neglected is the Cooling Tower. Operators ask all the time, “Why am I not getting the thermal efficiency that other plants do and what can I do to increase my performance?” This is always accompanied with the horror stories about how much fuel the plant is using because their heat rates are so high and how they have to shut down more than they like to replace critical components. Simply one of the easiest ways to improve operations is to start with a preventive or proactive maintenance program for your Cooling Tower.

If you can do a better job of extracting waste heat to the atmosphere and cooling the water in your process it really helps your whole generation performance at your Combined Cycle Plant. It’s really a simple four part maintenance process that starts with scheduling routine inspections to the common areas in your Cooling Tower and looking closely at the following areas.