Analysis of the Effect of Cooling Water Condenser to Power Plant Cycle Using Cycle-Tempo Software

The condenser is one component that has an important role in the operation of the coal-fired power plant. Changes in the conditions of cooling water have an impact on the thermal performance of the condenser in the condensation process. This study aims to determine changes in the performance of the condenser under changing cooling water conditions which also results in cycle efficiency. In this research, a power plant cycle model which is given a constant load of 350 MW is performed on the Cycle-Tempo. In this study, temperature and flow rate are two parameters that will vary in value. The results of this study indicate that the increase in cooling water temperature causes the heat transfer rate and the pressure inside the condenser to get higher. Conversely, the greater flow rate causes the heat transfer rate and condenser pressure to decrease. The highest heat transfer rate and pressure values of 330723.47 kW and 0.0117 MPa were obtained in the variation of cooling water at the highest temperature of 308 K and the lowest flow rate of 13888.9 kg/s. It affects on decreasing of the cycle efficiency. The solution to maintain efficiency is by adding more cooling water flow rate, about 15% - 21% for each 1 K temperature increasing step.